Chapter 7
"What the hell, Bruce!" Toni exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. Her face blazed red underneath the synthetic covering of the Tony-bot. Across from Toni, Bruce gazed at the ground.
"Are you going to answer me? This is serious. C'mon, Banner!"
"It's not a big deal," Bruce attempted to placate her.
Toni, however, was having none of it. "If this got out, it would be huge! This could change my life. What were you thinking?" she ranted as she paced from one end of lab to the other.
"Stop being such a drama queen, Toni. It's not going to kill you if anyone knows."
Toni huffed in annoyance. She desperately wanted to get away whether it was deep in the confines of her lab at Stark Towers or soaring through the open air in her Iron Man suit.
"Anything else but this Bruce. Anything else," Toni moaned. "Why did you have to let it slip that I might possible have once occasionally possibly slept with a stuffed animal for a very short period of time in my childhood maybe?"
"Seriously, Toni, it only slipped out because Steve shared an embarrassing story about himself. Barely anyone heard it," Bruce reasoned calmly.
"It doesn't even matter who else heard it. It only matters that this was Steve Rogers, Bruce. Steve Rogers," Toni said emphasizing the captain's name.
Bruce tilted his head minutely as he regarded Toni. "Why do you have such a problem with him?"
"He's an arrogant ass that thinks because he lived through the war and all that shit that he's better than the rest of us. And he's the biggest kiss-ass I've ever met."
Bruce shook his head at Toni's skewed logical reasoning. Sometimes, she could be incredibly arrogant herself. She had to be to think that the entire world was against her.
To her credit, it did usually look that way.
In the past week or so, Toni and Bruce had gotten much closer. Mostly they just talked shop and other science related topics. It wasn't like anyone else on the helicarrier could understand even the simplest thing about quantum mechanics.
While they talked a lot of science and trivial facts, it was an unspoken rule to not bring up either one of their pasts or anymore about Toni's alter ego. The day after he found out Toni's secret, Bruce demanded to have a more in-depth conversation.
A knock sounded on Toni's door, rousing her from her heavenly slumber. She was so tired that she didn't have her usual nightmares, or if she did, she didn't remember them.
The young brunette grumbled unintelligibly under her breath as she wrapped the thin blanket tighter around her inert form.
"Toni, it's me, Bruce," came the voice from the other side of the door.
She groaned in annoyance; she really didn't want to finish their conversation from last night. She just wanted to get on with her screwed up life in peace – or what equaled peace in her world.
Toni stumbled to her feet, dragging the blanket after her. She threw the door open to reveal a clean-shaven Bruce Banner standing on the other side in his standard dark-colored button-up shirt and pants. His glasses were pushed up his nose, and a strand of dark, curly hair fell over his forehead.
"What do you want?" Toni asked disgruntled.
"We need to clear a few things up."
Toni didn't move from the doorway. She really didn't want to have this conversation. Her ribs hurt like a bitch, she was starting to get a headache, and she just wanted to fall back to sleep in her dingy little cot.
"Go away. There's nothing left to talk about. This doesn't change anything. I'm still the same person."
Bruce didn't back down from Toni's harsh glare. "Tell me why I shouldn't let Fury in on your secret."
Toni's face hardened, but internally she was cussing herself out for slipping up in front of Bruce last night.
Toni stepped aside reluctantly. "Look, you better come inside if we're gonna do this."
The doctor stepped in the miniscule room. To the left, he noticed the bloody tank top and towel still crumpled in the corner. On the wobbly side table, the first aid kit lay open.
Neither Bruce nor Toni sat down. Both of them were on their guard and ready for anything that was going to happen.
Toni stared Bruce down, her angular features made even harsher in the dim lighting. "You tell anyone, and I will end you. You so much as breathe a word of this out loud and . . ."
"And what? What can you do to me? The other guy won't let that happen. Trust me; I've tried. Put a bullet through my brain, and the other guy spit it out." Bruce's face was somber as he looked down on the shorter teenager. His calm demeanor was a fragile covering for his eternally brewing anger; and with each day, more and more cracks appeared.
Toni was taken aback by this new information. It was horrible to know that someone – a middle-aged man no less – had been at such a low point in his life that he had done more than just think about ending it and had actually tried to kill himself.
The billionaire saw Bruce as invincible, as the steadiness amidst a sea of chaos. Toni's life was never simple. She never had that comforting constancy that seemed to tag along with most childhoods. As a child, she was sheltered in her lab with no clue about the real world.
She discovered tragedy at a young age, not even having hit puberty yet. As a teenager, she was exposed to the worst flaws of the human character possible. She knew what human nature was capable of.
If someone were to ask Toni now, though, she would say that her childhood was no worse than any other. She may have had a few bumps in the road but nothing too life altering.
That presumption was totally wrong.
Anyone could see it; it was right under the surface. Her pain was nearly palpable if someone were to actually take the time to look.
Bruce noticed Toni's thunderstruck expression. She just didn't know what to say. It was true; she couldn't hurt Bruce. It just wasn't possible.
"Look, I'm not going to tell anyone. I just want to know why. Why don't you just tell people now that your father's gone? It would make things much easier for you," Bruce wondered.
In truth, Toni had thought about it but had decided not to. If this got out, people would talk. They would ask questions that she didn't necessarily want to answer.
"It's just easier this way. No one questions a middle-age guy saving the world. If they knew I was a teenage girl, there would be a ton of moral questions. Besides, no one takes a teenage girl seriously," Toni answered with a shrug.
Bruce nodded in acceptance.
"One last thing. 'Toni' seriously? Not very creative. Why not just leave the 'y,' or give you a new name entirely?" Bruce asked with raised eyebrows.
Toni let a chuckle slip out. "Yeah, blame that one on Howard. I think it was easier for him to remember if the names were the same. I guess it's short for Antonia or something like that, but you ever call me that, and I will make your life a living hell."
The doctor raised his hands in mock surrender. "Fine, fine. My lips are sealed."
Toni rolled her eyes at the older man's antics. "God, I think I've been rubbing off on you. Next thing I know, you're going to be sassing Fury."
Things were fairly calm on the Avengers' floating headquarters since then. The imprisoned Loki wasn't putting up too much of a fuss, and the two scientists had no updates on the location of the Tesseract. Thor was visiting his girl, Jane while he had the time. Things were going to get crazy quickly so the god was on call if needed. Agent Romanov was off doing whatever spies normally do in their free time.
Toni had no idea what Rogers was doing, and she couldn't quite bring herself to care. That man could go rot in hell for all she cared.
Bruce noted the way Toni's eyes blazed with thinly disguised fury. He knew that Toni had been through so much at such a young age, but this wasn't healthy. Toni's mind was a steel lockbox that only the most elite of lock pickers could break into, and Bruce didn't have a single lock picking tool.
Toni needed someone who understood her past but wouldn't disregard it. She needed someone to hold her hand when she was down and to see past the façade of cockiness she wore more comfortably than her own skin.
Bruce didn't feel comfortable helping anyone in a way more than purely physical. He could patch up a couple of cuts and bruises, but emotional comfort was most definitely not his forte.
His past was colorful enough as it was.
"I should probably get back to work on this. You need to eat. It's been since last night," Bruce told Toni firmly.
Now that he had brought it up, Toni could feel a twisted knot in the pit of her stomach signaling her need for nourishment. Sometimes, Toni was so into her research that the idea of food seemed to slip her mind.
"Fine, fine. I'll grab something in a minute. I just need to finish this last thing." Toni was engrossed in the holographic screen inches from her face. Her fingers tapped furiously in the air, and Bruce could only guess at what she was searching for.
"Almost there . . . one last thing . . . just . . . let it download . . . and . . . done," Toni muttered under her breath. A smile spread across the fake skin of the Tony-bot as she took in the results.
"Toni," Bruce warned, "What are you doing?"
"You know, the usual. Cat pictures, gamma research, hacking into the mainframe, youtube videos. Nothing too important."
Toni flipped through the screens that popped up in front of her, waiting for Bruce to process what she so flippantly said. Bruce was bent studiously over his research with his curly hair falling in front of his face. A second later, his head flipped up to look at Toni in alarm.
"Wait, what do you mean 'hacking'?" Bruce asked. His voice held a note of barely disguised panic.
Toni cut the doctor a critical look. "Do you honestly believe everything that Fury is feeding you?"
"Why would he lie?"
"Seriously," Toni huffed. For someone so smart he could be really dense sometimes. "Fury is the master spy, the spy that spies on all the other spies. His secrets have secrets. Do you know how many things he could have hidden under that eye patch of his?"
Bruce stood up straight with a heavy sigh. "I'm only here to find the Tesseract. If I knew that SHIELD would leave me alone, I wouldn't even be here. I don't want to get into the politics. I want to find this thing, and go back to peace and quiet."
"Do you really think SHIELD is only using the Tesseract as an energy source? Just because people think you're a mindless beast doesn't mean you have to act like one," Toni may have come off as joking and slightly patronizing, but Bruce could detect the note of seriousness buried underneath.
"What did you – ," Bruce was cut off by the doors of the lab pushing open.
Captain Rogers stepped through the doors, gaining the attention of both scientists. He stood tall and muscular against the dark doors with his blonde hair standing out against his tan skin. He cut a striking figure, but Toni couldn't take him seriously with his skin-tight suit adorned with the good ol' fashioned stars and stripes.
"Making any progress?" Rogers asked. Toni turned her back, using her research as an excuse to ignore the pretentious man. Bruce, however, felt the need to actually engage in conversation.
"We've narrowed down the signature field of the radiation, but we haven't been able to accurately pinpoint it yet. We're in the process of scanning Loki's staff. It's still an unknown entity," Bruce explained.
Rogers nodded as if he could understand anything that Bruce was saying. Toni scoffed under her breath at his cluelessness. All those years on ice hadn't really helped his pop-culture references.
Unknown to Toni, Steve had heard the minute sound of disrespect. At the moment, he decided to ignore it. He really didn't know what Tony's problem was, but Steve really didn't want to get into it here and now.
"That's good."
Toni rolled her eyes again. Disdain practically dripped from her every pore.
"Good? Good! That took days to figure out. We've been working on this for hours, using technology that you could never even dream of, nevertheless figure out how to read, and all you can say is 'good'?" By the end of her rant, Toni was livid.
Bruce noticed Rogers' face hardening as he listened to Toni's tirade, but it didn't appear as if Toni was aware of it.
"What is your problem with me? Have I done something to you, done something to make you hate me? We've never even met before this!" Rogers exploded.
Toni rolled her eyes again. "Maybe you're just an ass."
"Maybe you're just a stuck up, selfish bastard with no regard to others," Rogers shot back. His eyes blazed with fury, and he crowded in on Toni's personal space.
Bruce saw how heated their argument was getting and decided that he should probably step in before they really started going at it. Then again, he didn't want to get himself too riled up trying to calm them down.
"You don't know anything about me," Toni spat at Rogers, unconsciously leaning closer. She looked like she was about to punch him square in the face.
"Big man in a suit of armor. Take that away and what are you?" Rogers said viciously.
Toni leaned back with a smirk. "Stark naked."
At that one, Bruce had to muffle his laughter in his hand. Toni was happy with herself, but this only seemed to enrage the captain further.
"Everything's a joke to you, huh? Can you be serious for at least ten minutes?"
Toni mocked indecision and just to annoy him more said, "Well, I could, but I think I would die of boredom, and the world cannot go on without me."
Rogers went silent for a minute. He seemed to be contemplating the mystery of a man in front of him before finally saying more calmly, "What would Howard think of you now?"
Fire blazed to life in Toni, blocking out all rational reasoning and thought. Rage consumed her, and she fleetingly wondered if this was what Bruce felt like.
"Don't ever bring Howard Stark into this ever again. He wasn't everything you think he was. He had flaws, just like you, just like me," Toni vehemently yet very quietly warned.
With that last piece of advice, Toni turned sharply on her heel and stormed out of the lab leaving a bewildered Rogers and a resigned Bruce behind.
