Chapter Three
When we do reach the plane, Bruce has everything set up and is waiting on us. He withdraws me from Tony's arms like I'm a lost puppy and lays me down on a small palate. I see out of the corner of my eye Clint firing up the engine, Tony and Cap exchanging looks and small bits of information, and Natasha headed over to me.
"Come on, Alex. We're going to take off your pants," she says. I snort.
"Saucy."
She smiles, Bruce blushes, and he walks away. She slowly peels the fabric from my hips and begins to pull it down my leg. The part covering my bullet wound begins to shift horribly, and I make a sound I can only describe as almost screaming.
"Bruce, bring me a pair of scissors. We're going to have to cut them off." Well, isn't that sexy? Bruce gives her what she's asked for, and I begin to feel cold metal moving up my ankle. Slowly, it snips, and my pants are coming off. She continues to cut most of the way up my thigh, and then makes a circle, exposing the wound, but not my underwear.
"You're clear, Doctor. She's not naked," Natasha says. Bruce walks back toward me and sits down at my feet, pulling my calf into his lap. I'd be lying if I said it doesn't make me wish Natasha had exposed my underwear.
"It's not too bad. I have to get the bullet out and bandage you up until we can get to Helen. Are you ready?" He asks, fingers resting gingerly at my ankle.
"As I'll ever be," I answer. He grabs a strange looking tool that resembles a pair of tongs and begins to extract the bullet. It doesn't hurt too terribly until he begins to pull it out. I fist at the blankets I'm sitting on as the stupid metal leaves my leg. It doesn't hurt as much once it isn't there anymore. Bruce douses it with alcohol, which may actually hurt more than receiving the dumb thing. He puts something that looks like a band aid on steroids over the wound and begins wrapping gauze over the area of my calf.
"Thank you," I say. It seems like the right thing. His warm, brown eyes meet mine, and he smiles.
"No problem."
"AHEM! Save the bedroom eyes for the bedroom," Tony interjects. Bruce and I both shoot him a death glare. He giggles like a twelve-year-old. When Bruce is finished, he looks at my other flesh wound.
"That looks like it sucks," he comments.
"It does. Is it still bleeding?" I ask.
"No, but it does need to be sanitized. More alcohol. My apologies in advance." Oh yay. Fuck my life.
He pours the alcohol down my arm, and it stings again. Albeit, not as much as the first time, but it still sucks butthole. He wraps the small gash in a softer gauze.
"Figured out how they caught us," Tony says aloud.
"Great. I'm dying to know," I reply sarcastically. I actually am interested, but somewhat bitter. Gee, I wonder why that could be.
"Oh, you're just grumpy because there's a hole in your leg. Simmer down, kitten. Apparently there were ground sensors all over the place. They didn't recognize me because, well, titanium alloy versus human foot print. Maybe they have some mentality that drones aren't dangerous, which hurts me, but oh well. Cap and Nat set them off. Their response team was evidently active several miles out, which was the only reason it took them so long to arrive. We got what we needed. The files had just barely finished downloading to both hard drives when Alex's distress call came in. The belowground comms shut down because the base was made of something too thick for radio waves to penetrate. Gotta work that out when we get back. JARVIS is sorting through the data as I speak, and we'll know everything about Stryker when we get back to the tower. We're keeping the originals; Fury gets our copies. I'm not taking any chances with Not The Director Of Me. Questions?"
"Why did they go after Alex specifically? Why not Clint?" Bruce asks.
"There's nothing saying they weren't aiming for Clint and didn't just see me first," I attempt to explain.
"No; Bruce has a point. Before you knocked out that second sniper, she had a clear shot of Clint, but didn't take it. Then, the people who were monitoring the base targeted you, not him. I think Bruce is onto something," Cap adds. That is valid. They came after me primarily. Clint was secondary to them.
"Maybe because of her history with Stryker and affiliations with the X-Men?" Natasha interjects.
"Maybe. Still, there might be something personal here. Alex, in the future, you're never on sentry duty again. You're always with a team. Not that you can't take care of yourself, but I think it's a bad idea to leave you alone. Okay?" Cap says.
"Fine by me. I don't like getting shot." Bruce chuckles breathily.
"Where is she?"
"We don't know, sir."
"Why don't you have her?"
"You performed the procedure on her yourself, sure. She's a bit difficult to deal with."
"Who is she with?"
"The Avengers, sir."
"Pay a visit to Stark Tower. Fail me again, and you will not live to regret it."
