Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel.

The room was quiet and still. The only source of light came from a small lamp from the nightstand. A bowl containing a melted ice pack was next to the lamp. However, the light was not a bother to Jacqueline who was passed out on her bed. After returning to her apartment a little after 11:30, all she could do was lie in bed. There was only one thing on her mind and it was Steve. Would he agree to help with the assignment? Or will he decline it? These two questions were bouncing around senselessly in her head. Fury was rather adamant that she needed to recruit Steve for this assignment. She didn't want to face him if Steve decided not to take the assignment.

The only thing she took some comfort in was Tony. There was no need for her to worry about him, he was going to take it up. With an assignment as serious as this, he wouldn't be able to just turn a blind eye to it.

Still, that wasn't enough to take away the knot in her stomach. Natasha was out trying to recruit Banner. With him, there was an even higher possibility that he would decline the assignment. For reasons that were understandable to Jacqueline. Even if Steve refused to help, she would be understanding of his decision. Still, she had a job to do. And that could affect their plans tremendously.

She managed to fall asleep at about two in the morning. The only positive from that was she didn't stay up the entire night. But she was startled out of her sleep by a phone call. The ringtone reverberated throughout her room. Her head snapped up and she reached over for her phone, not bothering to look at who the caller was. "Hello?"

"Lewis, it's Fury."

"Oh," she groaned and squinted her eyes open, seeing the time on her clock, 6:40 a.m. "What's with the early morning call?"

"Rogers has agreed to take on the assignment."

At this, Jacqueline threw the blankets from her body and sat all the way up. All the worrying she had done the night before wasn't necessary. "Great, great, that's good." She blinked a couple of times trying to rid of the heavy sleep in them.

"Also, Banner has agreed to the recruitment. I need you to get out to the Helicarrier and help with the preparations."

Even though she was somewhat alert, there was still a lot of sleep buzz that had to be worn off. "How much time do I have?"

"Thirty minutes. I'm sending Devane to pick you up."

"Understood. I'll see you soon."

Without wasting time, Jacqueline made her way into the bathroom. She had thirty minutes to take a shower and get to the quinjet. She could do this. She's gotten through this routine with fifteen minutes to work with. This shouldn't be that hard for her. The water was cold at first, she always did this to wake herself up in the mornings. She allowed the cold water to hit her face and body for a few seconds. After turning the water to hot, she went on with getting through her shower. About ten minutes in, the door to her apartment opened.

"Jackie." It was Alex. She had given him a spare key to her place. They lived by a somewhat open-door policy. If either of them needed to be at each other's place, for whatever reason, they could go on in. That's why they had shared spare keys to their apartments.

"In the shower," Jacqueline called out. "Turn on the coffee maker for me, please."

After thoroughly washing her hair and the rest of her body, she stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her body. Luckily, the bathroom was right across the hall from her room. It's not always comfortable to have your friend see you soaking wet and wrapped in a towel.

"We got fifteen minutes, Jackie." She heard Alex call from the kitchen.

Yeah, I know.

She crossed the small distance into her bedroom and closed the door. Striding over to her closet, she pulled out whatever she saw first; a leather bomber jacket, a simple shirt, a pair of jeans, and a pair of ankle high boots. The outfit was simple, but it would do for today. She slipped on her shirt, jeans, and shoes, then secured the gun holster to her thigh. From her closet, she pulled out a bag and quickly stuff in a few more shirts and another pair of pants. She didn't know how long this mission was going to take, it was always in her nature to bring extra clothing.

Once everything was packed, she picked up her jacket and stepped out of her bedroom. Alex was already pacing back and forth in the kitchen, "You seem a little antsy." She commented as she strode past him.

"Me antsy, hah." He took a glance down at his watch and frowned. "We just have ten minutes to get there."

She detected the sarcasm in his voice and cast him a quick glance. "Don't worry, we've had less time before. We always get there on time."

"That doesn't mean my nerves will go away."

In the kitchen, she took our two disposable cups and poured out the coffee. "Right. Well, like you said, we don't have that much time. So, we'll need to drink these on the way there." She handed one of the cups off to him and then they headed out of the apartment.

"That bruise is freaking huge!"

Jacqueline rolled her eyes at the statement made by her friend and pulled on one of the spare shirts she brought. "You're over exaggerating." Good thing she brought extra clothing, she ended up spilling coffee on her shirt on the way to the helicarrier. She went to pick up her jacket from the small cot and heard Gabby scoff. Her eyes glanced at the dark, sullen walls. The room was so bare. Something she had expected when she boarded the Helicarrier. Steve agreed to the mission, that meant she was called out of bed around five in the morning and take a flight out to the Helicarrier. She had to make sure that everything was set for Steve and Bruce to arrive. And he was currently on his way here with Coulson.

"So, what do you think he's gonna be like"

"Who?" Jacqueline didn't really pay attention to Gabby's question, but she made sure to answer.

"Doctor Banner. You know," Gabby made a gesture to emphasize her next statement, "the big hulk guy."

"Okay, well, first off, Banner and Hulk are two completely different…" she paused, what should she call the hulk? Was he really considered a person? "Identities." She finally found a suitable word. "They are two different identities. There's no need to treat Banner any differently."

"No need?" Gabby questioned. But with a quick surprised glance from Jacqueline, Gabby felt she had to reiterate what she meant. "Listen, I'm not saying lock up the guy while he's here. But you have to feel some kind of anxiety with having him on board."

"I think everyone does," Jacqueline answered, truthfully. Yeah, she was a little nervous about having him on board. The dude gets angry and he turns into a huge green form that goes crazy. Literally every single person, Fury included, were anxious about having him on board. But she was willing to give him a chance. By him, she meant Bruce Banner. "It honestly doesn't matter. He did us a huge favor for even agreeing to help us. So, I say we should give him a little leniency."

"Hey," Alex's voice came from the doorway, garnering both of their attention. "Banner just got dropped off on the deck."

Jacqueline took in a slow breath. This was really happening. The initiative was underway. She never thought she would be able to witness the gathering. After the idea was scrapped a few years back, there was no intention to bring it back. Then, once Steve was found, everything shifted. Now, she was on the Helicarrier waiting for the last few arrivals. It was…different. Honestly, she couldn't wait for Steve to see this thing.

"Guess it's time to go greet Mr. Banner." Gabby offered her an encouraging, thumbs up as Jacqueline left the room. As she did so she tugged for Alex to follow her. "Where's Natasha?"

"She's going to be meeting you on the main deck."

Jacqueline nodded and tried to loosen her bad shoulder, which was still a little tender from the hell storm that happened with the Tesseract. "What's Steve's location?"

"He and Coulson are just a few minutes out. It won't take them long."

"Good."

"You doing okay though?" Alex was gesturing towards her shoulder. She could only smile at his concern. She doesn't necessarily like it when people crowd around her like that, but it was always nice to know when someone was concerned for her.

"I'll be fine. Seriously, a bruised shoulder is the not the worst I've had." Her hand instinctively reached up to her left shoulder, mentally visioning the bullet scar that was inhabiting her skin. A wound she had obtained during her second year working for S.H.I.E.L.D., and it hurt like hell. Luckily, she had Alex with her during that mission. He was the only one who was able to calm her from having a full-on panic attack at seeing herself bleed out like that.

They made it to the exit onto the deck and Alex pushed open the steel door. Jacqueline was overwhelmed by the noises around her. Voices yelling above the engines of the jets that were landing combined with the wind. Everyone was getting ready to take off once Steve made it.

"Like your jacket."

Jacqueline was startled out of her trance by Natasha who had taken her place by her side. But, she glanced down at her leather bomber jacket and smirked. "Thanks, I can get you one if you'd like."

"I'm good thanks. I like shopping for my own clothes."

"Whatever suits you."

Natasha smirked and glanced over at Jacqueline, "So, how was Vancouver with Rogers?"

She had honestly been waiting to hear Natasha ask the overused question. Luckily, she should be the last one to ask her about it. "It was fine."

"Just fine, huh?"

"How was your recruitment assignment?" Jacqueline purposefully switched the subject, remaining on the discussion about Steve was bound to head in the wrong direction.

Nevertheless, Natasha went along with it. "It was rather interesting."

"That's the best word you can think of?"

"Well, I was trying to recruit the big guy, it was bound to be interesting, right?"

"I suppose, at least the big guy didn't actually make an appearance." Natasha hummed her own agreement. Jacqueline scouted out the deck, trying to find the doctor and her eyes finally settled on the timid figure of Bruce Banner. "I think I'm going to introduce myself to Doctor Banner."

"You do that," Natasha started off in another direction, "I need to go greet the captain upon his arrival."

Jacqueline retained a level of calm as she approached Banner. One would most likely feel intimidated or overly cautious when they approach the guy known for turning into a huge green monster. However, she studied up. She read through his full file from the archives, making sure that she understood both the human and the alter ego. Did she feel a little timid while approaching him? She would be lying if she said no. But for some reason, Jacqueline didn't want that to come across her actions when she met him. This guy has had to deal with that for a while. She wanted to give him a break from that kind of expected reactions.

"Doctor Banner." Bruce turned suddenly towards her, his hands fiddling with each other, he was quite nervous about being on this thing. It wasn't too hard to put that together. "I just wanted to introduce myself," she stuck out her hand, he didn't take it right away, there was a moment of hesitation. Finally, he took her hand into his own. "I'm Jacqueline Lewis, but you can call me Jackie. Literally, everyone does."

Bruce nodded and slowly retracted his hand, "Should I put Agent in front of your name?"

"No, it's not required." The first exchange was simple, that was good. "I just wanted to thank you for agreeing to help us find the Tesseract, we really appreciate it."

"Yeah, well," Bruce glanced nervously around at the workers. "You need to thank your people for that one. They were nice when they were asking for my help. It could have gone a whole lot differently."

Jacqueline's lips pressed into a thin line as she slowly nodded at his words. Good thing Natasha was an expert at maintaining calmness in situations. "I'm just glad that it all worked out well." She watched him slip his hands into his pockets and taking short glances around him. "You're a little timid."

"Aren't you?"

Jacqueline got a sense of which direction this exchanged was going to take. "Why would I be?"

Bruce glanced at Jacqueline, eyes emanating small confusion. "You have me on this thing, the guy who is known for turning into that huge green guy."

She had prepared herself for this conversation. Luckily, she didn't break down the level of calm she had lulled herself into. "I am well aware of your history Doctor Banner."

"And you're not intimidated?" Bruce asked, completely unsure of her mindset.

She only shook her head and smiled. Yes, she was slightly intimidated by standing right next to Banner. But, for her, all of the research Bruce has done as one of this century's best physicist seems to ease away the idea of what he was capable of and sheds light on who he was, as the actual person. She's heard some people refer to him as a ticking bomb. It always made her feel like they were dehumanizing him in a sense. She was going to do all she could to refrain from following that same path.

"Well, that's kind of-"

"Rare?" Jacqueline finished for him.

Bruce could only give a small nod in response.

A quinjet was approaching the Helicarrier and she knew immediately that it was Steve. Jacqueline and Bruce watched the aircraft land and the ramp was let down. "Well, let's hope that we can make your stay here enjoyable." Jacqueline watched Natasha approach Steve and then she motioned for Bruce to follow. It was time for the two men to finally meet. Steve's was able to spot Jacqueline right away and he was the first to greet her.

"Agent."

"Captain Rogers." Jacqueline bit the inside of her cheek. All she wanted to do was thank him profusely for agreeing to the mission. She felt stupid over how worried she had been. There was no reason for it.

Steve turned his attention towards Bruce. "Doctor Banner." He extended his hand towards Bruce.

"Yeah, that's right," he took Steve's hand. "They mentioned that you were going to be here." Bruce was a little awkward. Made sense though. He hasn't had to worry about being around people like this for a while. And now he was speaking with the sole reason he is the way he is. Bruce was trying to recreate the serum that helped make Steve Rogers into, well, Captain America. It didn't exactly go as planned.

"They told me that you will be able to find the cube."

"I'm pretty sure that's not the only word about me."

"It's the only word I care about."

Well, that just validated Jacqueline's goodwill endeavor when it came to Bruce. Again, Jacqueline wanted so badly to thank Steve for that. At least she wasn't the only one taking this approach. Well, maybe Steve wasn't exactly doing the same thing she was, but it was close.

The two agents stood back and silently watched the two men converse with each other. "So, what do you think?" Jacqueline broke the silence between them and nodded towards Steve. Natasha maintained a neutral look but having known the agent for a few years, Jacqueline has been able to read the way her features change.

"He's alright." Her answer only made Jacqueline scoff in response. She glanced over and saw the faintest smirk on Natasha's face, then it was gone.

"Whatever you say."

A command came through their comms. Agents, bring in Rogers and Banner. We are about to ascend.

Natasha stepped forward and cupped her hands together behind her back, "Gentlemen, we might want to head inside, it's about to get a little harder to breathe."

Steve and Bruce simultaneously looked around, curious as to what she was talking about. That's when they felt it. The entire vessel vibrated beneath their feet as a voice boomed over the speakers to secure the deck. They both took careful steps towards the edge.

"Is this a submarine?" Steve asked, to really no one in particular.

"Really," Bruce answered back. "They want to keep me in a heavily pressurized, metal container?"

Jacqueline perked up an eyebrow and smiled, "It's not exactly a submarine."

Steve and Bruce stopped at the edge and stared down at the giant turbines that were rising from the sea. This definitely wasn't a submarine. Bruce stared down at the turbines, a dry half smirk was on his face, "Oh no, now this is much worse."

After coaxing the two men to follow, they made their way into the actual Helicarrier. The hallways were swarmed with other agents and along the way, Gabby caught up with Jacqueline and didn't try to hide the stares she was throwing at Steve. This was the first time she had been able to lay eyes on him like this. Steve was completely oblivious to Gabby's staring at first, but he was able to catch it. The young woman only had enough time to flash a quick smile before Jacqueline had to remind her that staring wasn't polite.

Entering the main control room, Jacqueline still couldn't stop the look of awe that appeared. She had only been on this thing a few times. The room was an impressive, vast space, full of uniformed agents at desks and a large wall of window paneling, allowing everyone to have sight outside. It was breathtaking. One of the many perks of working with an organization like S.H.I.E.L.D. Everyone gets to see things like this. While there are a lot more cons that can come with this job, it's the small things like this that make it almost worth it.

She glanced over at Steve who was in more awe than she was. His eyes were taking in literally every single detail in the room. She can't imagine how incredibly off-putting this was for him. This was perhaps the most modern thing he's experienced in terms of technology.

She sauntered over to him, "What do you think?" Really, she wanted to know his thoughts on all of this.

Steve shook his head, still in awe of it all, "I don't," he paused to take another look around. "It's crazy."

That was a pretty good word for it. "For the past few weeks, you've been slowly submerging yourself with how different everything is," she huffed out a laugh. "And now you've just been thrown back in with really no regard."

"Well, I was given the choice about whether I was ready to do a mission or not."

She nodded. "By the way," she looked up at him, thoughtfully. "Thank you for agreeing to help. I know that Fury really appreciates it, in fact, I am fairly certain everyone does."

Steve silently nodded. "Who knows, maybe this might good for me."

"Maybe," Jacqueline couldn't give an opinion that said anything against. While she did have her own thoughts on Steve jumping back in so soon, she didn't know what was right for him. The only person who would is Steve himself. If he was ready to take on this assignment, then who was she to try and say anything against it. Besides, they were desperate for all the help they could get. Anyone who was willing to come on board was much appreciated.

Jacqueline's thoughts drifted aimlessly as Fury greeted her and Steve and moved on to speak with Bruce. As she went to fold her arms, pausing when the movement tugged at her sore shoulder. In a vain attempt to alleviate it, she tried moving her shoulder to loosen it a bit. This didn't go unnoticed by Steve.

He fully turned his attention on her, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"No, she's not." Gabby approached the pair and took her spot next to Jacqueline. "I told you that bruise was gonna end up bothering you."

"What happened?" Now Steve was even more curious.

"Nothing," Jacqueline flashed a glare in Gabby's direction. "Steve, this is Gabby. Gabby, this is Steve. She's uh, she's my friend." This was her chance to not only introduce the two but to get off the subject of her bruised shoulder.

Steve and Gabby both extended their hands to one another in a firm shake. "Not just a friend. I work as an assistant for Agent Hill and I'm pretty tech savvy myself which means I'm pretty useful around here."

Steve smiled, "Nice to you meet you."

"You too." That wasn't as awkward as Jacqueline thought it would be. "You know, you were the only thing people talked about when they found you."

Steve raised his brows in surprise. Other than Coulson, Gabby was the only person he's heard this from. Jacqueline never really informed him of how big the news was when he was found. It was very strange to hear about it for the first time.

"Not to mention the fact that the talk grew when you and Jackie flew up to Vancouver."

"Gabby." Jacqueline lightly warned her friend.

"Right, sorry." She quickly apologized. "So, all of this must be pretty crazy for you, huh? I mean, I hope it's not too overbearing for you."

"It's a little…much."

"Well, let's hope that this assignment can get done in a timely matter." The conversation was effectively halted when Gabby was being summoned by Maria and she apologized before leaving both of them.

It was after Gabby left that Jacqueline was able to pick up Fury and Bruce's conversation. "And where are you with that?" He was talking about the Tesseract.

"We're scanning every wireless accessible camera on the planet," Coulson answered. "Cameras, cell phones, laptops. Anything that is connected to a satellite, we'll be able to use it."

Jacqueline analyzed what Coulson said, her brain running rampant with her own thoughts on the matter. That's when the idea hit her. Without much thought, she abandoned Steve's side and made her way over to Sitwell. "Hey, have you started with face scanning yet?"

"No."

"Okay, well, pull up the photo of Loki from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database and start the scan."

With a trained eye, she watched as the images flashed across the screen. Every scan that completed ended up not being a match and it only made her stomach sink. But, she thought that there has to be a match somewhere. Finally, she told Sitwell to make the range wider. Age, location, anything. Loki was out there somewhere, they just needed to broaden the search a little more. Again, images flashed across the screen. Searches from England, France, Spain, pretty much from around the world, were right before her on this one computer screen. Kind of mind bottling if someone were to really think about it.

But these searches were coming up with no matches. And with each one, Jacqueline felt like maybe this idea was a lost cause. Until they came across was a match. Sitwell clicked on the image and Loki popped up on the screen. "That's definitely him," she confirmed and then said, "we got a match over here!"

"Where's his location?"

Jacqueline took a quick glance back at the screen and read, "Uh, Stuttgart, Germany. Twenty-eight, Konigtrasse."

"Yeah, but, he's not exactly hiding," Sitwell informed.

"That means he's probably expecting something to happen. We'll have to be careful."

Fury turned his attention to Steve, "Captain," he then looked over at Jacqueline, "You both are going in. Lewis, I want you to command the quinjet with Romanoff. Now go get suit up."

"Yes, sir." Jacqueline walked past Steve, signaling for him to follow. "I'll show you where we're keeping your suit."

Steve was led out of the control room and down the main hallway. They had to move quickly though. That means, anytime Steve's attention was attracted to something, he would have to ignore his curiosity. After passing a few labs, Jacqueline opened the door to a storage type room. At the far end was Steve's suit hanging in its own space.

"Did Coulson tell you that he had a hand in the design?"

Steve, eyes still fixated on his uniform, gave a small nod. "He might have mentioned it."

"I think that's one of his proudest moments." She had expected some form of response but didn't. Glancing over at him, Steve was just so still, staring at the uniform. Perhaps the enormity of his situation was finally dawning on him. "You okay?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe stepping back into the suit, might make you feel a little better. It's probably the most familiar thing to you."

Time was of the essence. They didn't have time to converse, unfortunately. Without wanting to sound too urgent, she took a step back, "We need to head out soon, so suit up. I'll meet you out there."

A/N: So, this chapter was pretty short, I do apologize for that. But, it will all start to pick up in the next chapter (hopefully). What did you guys think of Bruce and Jackie's first meeting? Did you like it?

Anyways! I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! A review would be much appreciated!

(edited 4/11/19)