Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the Avengers!

Don't be say and leave your comments, highly appreciated!

Chapter 10: Super Secret (boy) Band

Penny was explaining Hoban how to work things around in the floor, after introducing him to the doctors on the other side of the building. Their offices were on the science-side of the floor, whereas most of the equipment and the rest of the MDs and the ORs were on the far left. There was also the terrace, Stark's built-in parking spot, which had made the building a systematic target for crazy nutcases and the Avengers' fan base.

Leaving the building when Stark was around required a minimum of dark glasses and armored cars, though the task was slightly easier for normal-looking-agents and nerd-looking people like Bruce or Penny. Around two months back, a crazy paparazzi managed to break off from the Visitor's tour and reached the agents' quarters on the 3rd floor. He was able to take some pictures of the installation that somehow saw the light of day, even after he had the unfortunate luck of bumping into the Captain, who was labeled by the media as "a marine thug with great eyes." Everyone seemed to like his eyes.

There was mild speculation in social networks and gossip shows about him potentially being Captain America since he had been seen around Tony and Fury a couple of times, but then Mark and Larry from training also made appearances outside the building with them just to confuse people. Tony was against it of course but went along anyway, "Everyone should know who you are! Look at Natasha and Clint! All dressed up and faces for the world to see". The Captain didn't see eye to eye on this matter with Tony though.

After this incident, Tony was forced to keep his Iron man parking to a minimum, lowering down the attention-seeking mania he had by driving into the official building, like any normal person would. He was also advised to work permanently from his Malibu residence to have west-side coverage of the potential threats, whilst Steve, Bruce and Clint and Natasha would keep east and central-side coverage. Clearly, he wasn't going to take that advice this day.

Hoban was getting stressed out with all the technical stuff and security protocols he had to deal with. "Can we take a break? Go to the terrace maybe?" Penny nodded and grabbed her coat. They picked some coffee from the machine and headed outside. While they were zipping coffee slowly, chatting up in rusty Chinese they started hearing Safe in New York City. Coming out of nowhere, no, not nowhere: up.

Her animosity showed in her sarcastic tone "Oh great, you wanted to meet Stark, right?" Hoban's eyes broadened like those of a kid who just got a new toy. Stark's suit started coming out of him and the music slowed down. His chest was glittery and his cocky expression was rather grim today. They came closer to him "Dr. Quinn! I was hoping not to see you today." She pulled a sarcastic smile "Tin man. This is Alan Hoban"
"New henchman?"
"New Lead MD"
"It's a pleasure to meet you" he extended his hand to shake, but Tony disregarded him and kept walking. "What happened to the last one? One too many doughnuts?"
"One too many fuckups is more like it. I need your blood sample" he waved her away "No can do, gotta see the important people" she kept trailing behind him and Hoban was still way too eager to see him live to pick on his rudeness.
"You should've come in for checkup 2 weeks ago Stark."
"Don't you people have CNN here? I was fighting this really bad guy back in Sunnyland. Sorry." He knocked on Bruce's office door.
"Actually we do. We saw this guy with red and blue spandex stopping a giant lizard from throwing a mutating gas to the city. Just with his talent. It was quite impressive." He stood on dry and turned around, seeing the pleased looked on her face "I'll fedex it to you, ok?"
"Today"
"You are one pushy blond you know that?"
"It's all in the heels." Bruce came out of his room just in time to say hello to his science buddy before Fury and 4 officers came in to remind all of them their tasks.

"Stark, you're supposed to drive in."
"It was urgent Fury, I couldn't just park in the Stark tower and drive here. You know the traffic this time of the day? Terrible!" Fury looked passed him "Dr. Banner, your liaison will come over later today." That was code for "You can't leave your lab, even with Stark here." He nodded. "Drs, you have things to do."

Fury and his officers started walking towards the elevator and kept talking to Tony, who called for Bruce, but he stayed in his lab. Stark was puzzled as to why Bruce wouldn't leave but didn't throw too many questions since he had an agenda of his own.

Hoban decided to head back on to his first day of work and went to the other side of the building to see the rest of the MDs and how they went through their day. Penny was picking some prints for Peter's recruitment process and was heading back to her office when she heard it: Bruce was throwing a pad to one of the walls. Shit.

"Brandon, jam the feeds but stay alert." The AI replaced the feed with some from earlier while she rushed towards him "Bruce? Bruce?" He was doing the sharp low breaths to control his anger. "I'm ok Penny, I'm ok." She checked his pulse and stared at his eyes, started mimicking his breathing. "Is this lamaze now?" they shared a giggle and and after a few minutes of joint breathing and soothing, his eyes were back to their honey brown.

She clicked on her Bluetooth without letting go of his wrist "We're okay. Make sure the feed makes sense." She looked at his eyes again. "I gotta go now, are you gonna be okay?"
"What did you just do?"
"Cut you some slack, that's all." He frowned confused. A guard came rushing from the bathroom; gun aimed at Bruce "What happened?" Oh c'mon, give me a frakking break.
"Hey, you may wanna put that down, we were talking here with Bruce and I was so silly I threw coffee in the pad, and then I got burnt and it fell."
"Fell?"
"Loudly"
"I need to check the Security feed" he was heading to talk in his comm.
"Sweety, do you really want to tell someone that you weren't at your station when a loud noise happened inside Dr. Banner's office?" Bruce was astonished as to see her being so... Coulsony. The heels really made her bossy alright.
"I'll need to report that-."
"That I dropped a pad cursing when I spilled coffee in it."
"It's my job."
"And keeping Banner safe is mine officer. I mean, sure, you can report my coffee spill, which would be a terrible embarrassment, just like your escapades to the OR with Dr. Stevens, don't you think?" He swallowed heavily and felt his neck was too tight. "I thought so." She took a step closer to the guy, talking to his same level "Tell you what. You report I broke a pad and there was a loud noise, which startled Bruce. That's why I was checking his pulse and I forget Dr. Stevens' hickeys from your last overnight shift together. Deal?" The officer nodded and walked away.

She moved back towards Bruce "Newbies, so easy to scare off." He snorted "You scared me there!" She asked again if he was going to be okay and he nodded. When she was walking away towards the elevator, he called her, "Thanks Peggy" she gave him a smile and pushed the button.

When the door opened, Steve was coming out "Hey." "Hey stranger, I gotta run." he saw her forehead and came closer to her, not realizing he had cupped her face with his hands. "Oh Peggy that looks bad." He lowered his gaze to her eyes and realized how improper he was being, taking a step back. "Yeah, I need to get bangs so the stitches aren't so obvious." She lingered there for a minute. So did he. She looked at him again "I reallyneed to go and do stuff, see you later?"

He half smiled "Sure I'll spring my hand or something in training later. Hey you look very..." Yes, his inability to talk to women was still there "Tall. Pretty. I mean, it looks good on you." She felt colors rising to her face "Ok, thanks. Bye guys" She waved at Bruce who was passed Steve and closed the elevator door as soon as possible. Blushing? Really? Stupid drugs.

Steve shook his head and turned towards his friend. "You're improving I think. Almost no mumbling! Good!" Steve tried to hide his embarrassment by gazing around looking for the officer assigned to the floor. "Oh, she just scared him off." Bruce wrote something down in a post-it and placed it on Steve's pocket "I'll call for takeout later, see if they bring it all the way here." They shared an accomplice grin.

"What's so funny guys?" Agent Romanoff came in. "Hello Natasha!" she smiled at both of them. She was carrying a flask of blood. "I'm here to drop this."
"You're Stark's courier now?" It was the best attempt at changing the topic Bruce could come up with in front of her. "Apparently he is too tied up with Fury to do this himself. I had to come in anyway. Is Dr. Morse around?"
"You just missed her." Steve had the feeling that it was exactly the point. "Oh." Natasha was doing the pouty lips thing. Yes, missing Penny was definitely the point. "I'll just drop this at her desk then." Everyone seemed to have an agenda. Romanoff wasn't the exception.

Steve came to Penny office's door step. "Natasha?" She was taking a blood sample from herself. "Since I'm here... I better leave mine as well." He didn't miss the fact that she was going through Penny's drawers and papers 2 seconds before he came in.

He had that I outrank you tone that exasperated Clint so much. "Are you going to tell me?" of course, she was Romanoff, that wouldn't work on her. "Everyone has secrets Cap, even Bruce and you." He came closer to her and leaned on Penny's desk.

"I'm trying to keep this team as straight as possible Natasha. No secrets, no lies." She snorted "You can't play a player Rogers" She took the tube off her arm and left it with her name in capital letters next to Stark's on the desk.
"All I'm saying is, we're in this together, all of us, even Stark. I know this is far from perfect and is not like the life you used to have before we came together as a team. But we all have things to deal with and I believe is best if we sort them together, as the team we are."

She was dead serious, which was Natasha's usual look. He thought he sensed a shift in her posture though, making her seem slightly more vulnerable. He wasn't sure whether his words had hit her or if it was all part of a con that her life had turned into so many years ago. He pat her in the arm in a comforting way "What is it Natasha?"

She was thrown back by the brotherly gesture, which was unusual for her. She always calculated 3 steps ahead of her opponent. It took her years of re-training to stop thinking of everyone as a target, but sometimes it slipped. Things have been confusing lately in her head. She thought of saying something, but just stared at him.
She was agent Romanoff, deadly specialized in reading and deceiving people, and getting the darkest truths out of them. Ask Loki if you don't believe us. So, why was she finding it so hard to keep her emotions at bay lately? Still no words were coming out of her.

He crossed his arms over his chest, then he looked around the desk and saw papers that were meaningless to him, but had some sort of value to Natasha. She was interested in Dr. Morse and he didn't believe for a second it had to do with petty things like female jealousy. No, we're talking about Natasha Romanoff here. She must have good reason to go over Penny's desk. He took a deep breath "If you have doubts on anyone on the team, you need to come forward." She looked at him inquisitively and half smiled. "Oh no, our team is just fine." She crossed her arms and walked away from the office into the elevator area "I'll see you later in practice Steve"

Bruce came out of his office to wave at Natasha but she bluntly ignored him. She seemed to be quite taken aback by her little talk with the lead Avenger. The officer came back to the large corridor and nodded at them but kept his distance. Steve and Bruce shared a concerned look. "I don't like this." Bruce nodded.

"You think this has to do with Barton? I mean, he's like, two-timing them" Steve shook his head "No, no, it's not that." Bruce took a deep breath "I dunno man, before Penny started being our doctor full time, I really thought Barton was with Natasha, but he has this way around Penny that, I dunno. I think he's two-timing them."

"They were married. Penny and him. Years ago." Bruce was stunned by these news. "Yes, well, I still think he's a dick." Steve agreed "He has a problem with taking orders, yes. Anyway, gotta go."

"Hey, so Penny is available?" Steve frowned "I… guess? I mean, maybe she's um, I dunno, she seemed interested in the… chef from that… restaurant." Bruce sneered at him "You're right, but I don't know… She seems unattached… and I have this friend I'd like to introduce her to. He's a nice guy, has that grim soldiery look upon him" he started laughing when Steve mocked-hit him in his stomach "You're a jerk Banner."

"Yeah, but I can get away with it. I'm a big green monster. Remember?"