The pair jumped when the quinjet engines fired up. Natasha sighed. They'd been like this all day. Jumping when doors opened, when people moved too close, when someone spoke to them.
On the way to the quinjet, they were purposely led through the places on the Helicarrier that they'd been to before, in another attempt to get their memories back. But there was nothing. No sudden realization, no flash of recognition in their eyes. Just them being themselves, except they weren't really themselves anymore.
Pepper had been distraught at the list she had been sent. Though she and Tony had broken up three weeks before he had been kidnapped, she was still his CEO and his third-oldest friend and cared deeply for him. She still took care of him when Bruce forgot to, which was when they were both doing a science spree.
From what Natasha had deduced from the short conversation they had over the phone, Pepper was determined to get Tony's memories back, and she was also pretty certain that she could do it without too much hardship. Natasha told her not to get her hopes up, but as far as she could tell, Pepper hadn't paid any attention to her advice.
The journey to Stark Tower was spent mostly in complete, tense silence. Thor had opted to fly outside of the quinjet to make Tony and Bruce a little more comfortable. Bruce and Tony showed no guilt at making Thor fly to Stark Tower himself, relief was the emotion that showed more on their faces.
Clint and Natasha were still looking especially hard for clues about the pair. They'd spent most of the last two days on the Helicarrier analysing the video feeds they had of them. There was no sound still, after an April Fools prank that meant Tony managed to reprogram the cameras to no longer record sound. No one had managed to fix it yet. They had noticed a few extra things which were worth noting; Tony looked to Bruce for reassurance, not the other way round, and it was Tony who initiated the touch first, mostly, and he seemed to get slightly more out of the physical contact. It was probably very important, they just didn't know why. They needed the debrief to come soon or they needed a detailed analysis from someone who knew Tony and Bruce well. Namely Pepper. It was up to her, Rhodey or even JARVIS to give them a few more answers.
For now, Bruce and Tony were banned from all labs and workshops in the building. They weren't happy about the ban, but no one really cared. There were other things that they needed to be doing, like regaining their memories and catching up with now over four months of business they had missed. And rest. They needed a lot of rest, they weren't exactly healthy and they hadn't gotten much sleep since they had been unconscious. They were plagued by nightmares, it seemed, and those ended in hours of them holding each other tightly on one of the beds that the agents hated so much because they were so thin. It really showed that they needed those nutrient drips that they kept refusing. It was as if they had a death wish.
No one put those thoughts into words because no one wanted to know what the response would be.
The silence was broken in the final five minutes of the journey by harsh coughing. Everyone turned around, startled to see Tony almost doubled over, his face contorted in pain, coughing and retching.