Banner was back in the lab, working hard at the computers. He had narrowed down roughly three fifths of the world where Clint was NOT. Asia was one of those places, so their only lead was gone. It was four in the morning, and Bruce was so tired he couldn't remember if he had stayed up through the night, or woken up stupidly early. Coffee. Coffee had to help. He sleepily walked across the room, and punched orders into a coffee maker. He stared sleepily at the machine, waiting for the caffeinated liquid to collect in the mug. He was so. Tired. But he just had to find Clint, he owed Natasha, anything he could do for her he would.

Bruce had nightmares almost every night, but they were rarely recurring. Just vague memories of the horrors the other guy had committed, and possibilities of what he could do if Bruce ever really lost control. Even after New York, he was terrified about what could happen if The Hulk took over. And since then, he had earned a nightmare that came at least once a week. The room exploding. Falling. Searing pain as his head hit the ground, something being shaken loose inside of him- Something he couldn't put back in place. And Natasha trapped besides him as the Hulk began escaping. She couldn't move, and she was only trying to help him. And because she wanted to help, he had wanted to kill her. That was his nightmare. Only in the dream... When he was chasing her... She didn't escape him.

Beeping from the coffee maker startled Bruce from his thoughts, without thinking he grabbed the steaming mug and gulped down a mouthful. "Gah, argh, unnnn" he moaned, trying to handle his burning throbbing mouth without getting angry. He shut his eyes, tried to clear his mind. An image of Natasha running from the "other guy" entered his thoughts instead. Banner calmed down oddly enough, remembering her fear reaffirmed his desire to never make anyone feel like that again.

Work always helped distract him when he felt at all angry, or guilty. Now sipping at his coffee, Bruce returned to his computer. He was determined to find Clint before the surgeon arrived for Natasha's operation.
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Meanwhile, Tony was in another lab, trying to fix the lockdown of his suit. He and Bruce had started off sharing a work space, they quickly learned it was best if they only worked together when they were actually working on a project together. If they each had different projects going on, Tony got all into Bruce's space, Tony kept telling Banner how he should be working, they basically got on one another's nerves. Tony eventually kicked himself out, and wandered around until he found a lab that suited his needs. So what if he had to dodge a few guards, pick a few locks and override a security system? All that mattered was that he was comfortable when working on his suit!

He had been in here as long as Banner had been in his own lab, but he was able to handle the lack of sleep far better. He had cured the permanent lock mode the suit entered- by removing that entire feature from the program. He would tinker with that another time, and put it in his next suit. With a mission coming up he didn't need any problems when in the field.

Tony felt good about this suit, finally most of the bugs were worked out, and he would have to let Pepper know that he finally fixed the- Oh crap Pepper. He had forgotten to tell her he was even coming to shield, thinking this would be a quick thing- and she arrived home tonight. No, scratch that, last night. This was really not good. He was going to be in so much trouble.

"Jarvis!" He ordered, speaking to the laptop that he had hooked up for his virtual friend. "I need you to check my phone and email and see if I have any messages from Pepper... And you better have a florists number prepared." Stark held his breathe waiting for the answer, and though he dreaded it he was not at all surprised by it. "Sir, you have seventy three emails, one hundred and thirty five missed calls, not to mention three hundred and fourteen text messages. Would you like for me to read them?"

Tony groaned, this was not good... Pepper must be so mad and worried. He was lucky if she hadn't called the cops out to look for him. "Jarvis! Please order the biggest bouquet of flowers that you can find around home, and compose an Email for Pepper." Tony drummed his fingers against the table, trying to think of what could be said.

"Ok, write this down. "Pep, Hi! I am alive, and not kidnapped harmed etc etc. I know I am in huge trouble with you, I should have called you or left a note. I am flying over an ocean somewhere, on a quick job for Shield. I did not think it would take this long, they gave the impression that I would be done by now. Nothing serious is happening over here, Legolas has been captured and we have to find him. Red had also been injured on a mission, she isn't doing well. I'll keep you updated on her condition. I miss you, I would call you but don't feel like being yelled at right now. I hope you don't kill me when I get back... I love you, I'll be back soon."

Tony was quiet as Jarvis typed this up, the email was sent and the lab silent. Tony was missing Pepper a lot, he hadn't seen her in almost a week. It sometimes stunk being in love when both people in the relationship have to travel away from each other so much. He was really missing his girlfriend though it was far from the first time they had been apart. All of this stuff with Clint and Natasha was probably just making him more grateful that Pepper was safe and healthy.

Not for the first time, Tony wondered what the relationship was between the two agents. He had asked a couple times before, and was told that if he wished to keep all the pieces of his body, he shouldn't ask again. Were they a thing? Just friends? Woah, what if they were married? That would be too crazy a thing to keep hidden. It didn't matter why the two were so close, Tony just wanted to help them. If anything then just because if something like this happened with him and Pepper, he had to hope the team would do just as much to help them as they were doing for Clint and Tasha.

Suddenly very tired, Stark ordered Jarvis to shut down the shop. He was going to go see if Banner needed any help.
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Meanwhile, Steve was back in the waiting area adjoining Natasha's hospital room. He had decided it was stupid to avoid the place just because of a stupid bad dream. Besides, when he asked to spend the night in Maria's office (did the woman ever sleep? She was like a working machine.") she had refused. Saying she was sorry, but she had to focus on some important work. Why did Steve care about this? Had she actually hurt his feelings? He didn't want to think about this right now.

Natasha looked totally unchanged, the only difference in the room was the lack of medical personnel. Just a couple nurses monitoring her, and one unlucky doctor who was present in case anything went suddenly wrong. Someone had brought a couch into the waiting area, so Steve didn't have to stand anymore. He wondered who was responsible for the new piece of furniture, though he had a pretty good guess. Not that Hill would ever admit to placing it if he thanked her for the place to sit.

Steve had come here soon after meeting with the rest of his team, after being kicked out by Maria he found his way to this room. He hadn't slept well for what felt like days, and was utterly exhausted. But he was too scared to sleep. If he slept he would have another nightmare. Maybe if he gave in to sleep, when he woke up Natasha would be dead. Maybe... Maybe...

The next thing Steve knew, he was laying on the couch and someone was shaking him. "Captain! Captain! Wake up... Steve. Steve! Wake up already!" Startled out of sleep by whoever was roughly shaking him, Steve sat up and exclaimed, "Aaargh, gosh, what is it? What's wrong, what happened?" Still half asleep, he assumed it was an emergency. Then he realized someone was grabbing his hand, and wasn't releasing it. "Steve, " Maria Hill said. For once sounding like a human instead of a soldier. "Stark and Banner found Barton, they located him! Come on. They want to wait till everyone is present, Stark went to get Thor, I have to bring you."

Steve was sitting up now, and as Maria finished talking there was a slightly awkward pause. His eyes flitted down to her hand wrapped around his own, Maria let go. She backed away, the excitement on her face was completing gone. She cleared her throat. "Well then. Come on, everyone is waiting for us. For you. They are waiting for you, I just volunteered to come get you. I mean, I was asked to. Come on." Embarrassed, Maria turned away and walked out the door. Still feeling drowsy, and extremely confused, Steve followed her. They were halfway down the hall when a rush of thrill and excitement rushed through him. We found him! We can get him back in time! Finally something was going right.