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Chapter Eight

"There's more than your writing here," she said, studying the binder in front of her. "Yours is fairly easy to pick out. Messy script to be sure, but readable in the long run." She took it over to where Bruce was cooking. "See there's two other people's writing here. One belongs to a woman. It's a bit loopy and I found a little love note written in the same manner in one of the margins." Bruce blushed to which Hermione said, "It was cute, but I didn't read all of it once I saw that it was personal. I just read the first line and who it was from."

"Betty," he murmured. "It's Betty's writing."

"Your fiancée?" He nodded. "And whose writing is this?"

"What do you mean that there's another person's writing?" he asked, taking the binder from her even as she took the cooking spoon from him. She pointed it out to him on the paper, making him frown. "I-I never saw this writing before." He looked to the front of the binder and muttered, "This isn't my copy."

"Then why would Betty write a love note to you in it?"

"I had several copies of the math. I constantly lost them. She could have written a note in this copy thinking it was mine."

"But…" She stopped herself. "Okay, I have a theory." He looked to her. "This may have started out being yours, as there is not only a note to you, but your own writing in it as well. But it doesn't go past the midway point of the math."

"Okay," he said. "But where does that leave us?"

"You supposedly lose things all the time. But what if one or two of those times you didn't lose them, but rather they were taken?"

"But why?"

"It's a big top secret project with many a person wanting to hang their hats on this, correct?" He nodded. "Who stands the most to gain or lose by what happened with it?"

He thought it over and breathed, "General Ross."

"Is he the kind to want to have your work checked out by other people?"

"That and more," he muttered, a flash of green lighting his eyes.

"Bruce, if you get angry and green here and now, can you take out the half dead tree in my backyard?" He looked at her in shock. "The gardener wants me to pay him a small fortune to do it."

He just stared at her for a moment before asking, "Are you crazy?"

"No, I'm practical." She worried on her lower lip before saying, "Its odd how often the two are confused."

Hermione pulled out a set of car keys, as she walked Bruce over towards the garage. Opening the door, she practically put him behind the wheel of the car.

"What…" She handed him a messenger bag.

"You have several burner mobiles, as well as more than a few passports, driver's licenses and state I.D.s, and you have moneys all from different countries—including the United States. There's a rucksack in the trunk." She pulled out a piece of paper and handed it over to him. "That is my personal mobile number. It's a phone I just purchased so the number isn't well known. If you need help, any help at all no matter where you are, call me."

He looked at the number. "Why are you doing this for me?"

"Because you are my friend, Bruce." She leaned in and kissed his temple. "I hope that you're able to find your peace before next we meet."

"Thank you, Hermione," he murmured. "You're the best."

"Can I get that in writing? There are still a few people out in the world in doubt of that," she said dryly, making him chuckle. "Myself included."

"The best," he repeated, starting the car.

The car was down the street before Coulson joined her at the front of the house along with Clint and Natasha.

"You didn't tell him what happened," Coulson said quietly.

"If Dr. Banner was told at the moment, he wouldn't have been able to control the beast." She looked at him. "And trust me, he would have taken out the block with what I found out."

It wasn't until they were in the house that she bothered to explain to them what she had found.

"I suspect that General Ross had the math checked by someone who didn't know what they were looking at and they changed the math in such a way that it caused the accident," she told them.

"How did you figure that?"

"The original math was all there still. The notes here were transcribed again, but that contained the supposed corrections. I asked Director Fury to send me a newer copy of the math. It got here just before Bruce left." She opened up both and pointed out what she had been speaking about in each. "They either didn't know what they were doing or they sabotaged the experiment. In either case, we have a royally fucked up situation."

"You can say that again," Clint muttered. "You gave him the bum's rush."

"With the calling for the second copy of the notes, it would have alerted Ross that someone was paying too much attention to his baby, as it were. I wouldn't be shocked if he ended up coming here within the next day or two." She looked over to Natasha. "Can I use your guestroom for the next week or so?"

"Of course," she murmured. "And while you're my guest, we'll celebrate your new Ph.D.."

Hermione blushed with pride, as her friends congratulated her on a job well done.

Hermione's wards went off four days later alerting her as to something going on at the house. She never did much more than having several alarm wards on her residence. Just the thought of having to explain any sort of magic to her employers had her breaking out into hives. Five minutes after they alerted her, she received a phone call from one of her neighbors. Almost the entire block, with the exception of a few of the houses, was pretty much leveled. The excuse given was that it had been a gas explosion.

"What the hell did you do to your house to keep it standing?" Monica her next door neighbor asked her. "My house was standing because my grandfather was a paranoid old goat."

She tried to think of something to say, but could only come up with the truth. "Nothing, but I heard one of the former owners was a paranoid cold war profiteer." Natasha was trying to hold back a laugh when she said as much. "I guess their paranoia about who they saw as the bad guys nuking the east coast helped me out." Nat looked at her to which she shrugged. "Thanks for the call. Let me know if you need anything."

"I'm one of the lucky ones. The house was only scorched, but the garden is toast…literally." She paused in speaking. "You know given everything, I don't know what the hell the Army is doing here. If it was a gas fire, they wouldn't have a reason to be here."

Soon enough, she was hanging up and letting out a long sigh. "General Ross tried to get into my home it would seem." Grabbing up the remote for the TV, she turned on the local news. Sure enough, it was there. And as her neighbor had said, most of the neighborhood was gone. Being told what happened and seeing it were totally different things. Needless to say, the image had far more of an impact. There were only three standing houses with her own abode standing out even among them, as nothing seemed to touch it not even the flames as there wasn't a scorch mark or even a dent on her home. "What did that man do?!"

"From what I can see?" Natasha said, studying the film on the television. "Rocket launcher."

Hermione just stared at it for a time before she said, "I have no idea how my house managed to survive that mess. I didn't even know the house was so well protected! I wasn't the one that did anything to it." She looked over to her friend. "I haven't a clue how I'm going to explain this."

Getting up from her seat, all Nat said was, "I'll get the vodka from the freezer."

TBC…

And there's another chapter shimmying its way across the dancefloor into the internet. Thanks for reading and have yourselves a party filled day.