So it goes with saying that only things I own with any connection to MARVEL I bought on Ebay or Etsy. MARVEL COMICS & MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE are their own creatures and I have nothing to do with either of them aside from the fact I enjoy reading or watching them, and am grateful for the ability to play in their world. I claim nothing, and I receive nothing for this, expect the pleasure of putting something out into the world.
You can also find this story on ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN under the same title and pen name along with a place to post suggestions.
Don't forget to check out the Photobucket album by searching the title of this story and my user name.
CHAPTER TEN
SUNDAY, JUNE 3RD 2012
1907 HOURS
PEPPER POTTS CABIN, WOODSTOCK NY
2565 ROUTE 212
STEVE
I could hear the staff setting out our dinner. Mine, and Natasha's at least. J.A.R.V.I.S told us Bruce would be eating his dinner with Nora so they could keep talking. The staff won't go near Nora unless they absolutely have to at this point. I hate that they ostracize her like that, because all Nora ever really wanted was to be able to be around people, but I get it. Nora hurt a woman just by putting her hands on her.
I had been the kitchen, staring out the window doing a bad job of pretending like the scenery was in any way interesting to me. I choose the kitchen at first, because it wasn't the up stairs, but it was is close is I could be to the staircase and the elevator leading up there.
When I realized I was making the staff feel awkward with my anxious fidgeting though I crossed the distance to the living room instead, and sat where I could still see the stairs and the elevator.
I barely even waited for the elevator doors to close behind Natasha before I asked my first question, standing and approaching her even is the words leave my mouth. "How is she?"
SUNDAY, JUNE 3RD 2012
1908 HOURS
PEPPER POTTS CABIN, WOODSTOCK NY
2565 ROUTE 212
NATASHA
The naked desperation in those words almost stings, and I can tell he feels the same way about it once he registers that it's there.
When I called her on the cruelty inside her calm, this was it. Steve want nothing but to be there for her in every conceivable way. He's try trying to dance barefoot over red hot pins, and not only is she refusing to give him her hand, she's throwing the occasional rock.
"She's fine Steve." I offer in a moment of mercy is we both sit down at the dinner table, reassuring him that nothing came out his concerns of leaving her alone with Banner, or him alone with her. "Bruce said she was very civil with him, and that she seemed very comfortable around him."
"Bruce said?"The subtext is all in his tone, and unmissable despite the fact that I casually take the time to fill my glass with water before I answer. "Yes, Bruce said. I didn't see her. She was still getting dressed." The sound of his softly choking on air is the reason I didn't fill his glass too.
SUNDAY, JUNE 3RD 2012
1908 HOURS
PEPPER POTTS CABIN, WOODSTOCK NY
2565 ROUTE 212
STEVE
She's getting dressed, she took off her...but she...? I've had time to adjust to today's standard, even though some things still tend to stick because in my head,it's only been a little more than a year. This is one of them. A woman undressing in the presence of a man who's not her husband. I get that things are different, and it's not is much of a taboo is it was in the 40's. But it's less about the fact that Nora shouldn't, is it is about the fact she wouldn't. Nora, my Nora, would pass out from a panic attack well before she got a few layers off.
"She's fine Steve." I should be frustrated by that, how I'm sitting here is open is a book in front of a woman who's done more to loose my trust then gain it. I though during the fight that she was someone I could count. Her courage, and the way she threw herself into the fight were more than admirable.
I had Nora's story of her incredible sister in my head, and once I made the connection, the trust just slipped into place. Then it was Nora again who shattered it with a hammer. This woman's a liar, and a manipulator. I shouldn't be giving her anything, but I can't be bothered to care. "Is she really fine, is that Banner all told you?"
"Steve, I'm not her Doctor." the reminders gentle but its impact is not.
"No, yeah, your right, patient confidentiality, he can't tell us." it's not like before, where I forgot something 'new', that's something we had, I'm just so frustrated by the fact I can't do anything, that I'm apparently losing my mind a little. "It's just Nora doesn't even want to talk to me."
SUNDAY, JUNE 3RD 2012
1909 HOURS
PEPPER POTTS CABIN, WOODSTOCK NY
2565 ROUTE 212
NATASHA
He's not going to take this well. It's a gift that I'm reluctantly about to give him, becuase its also a set back. He won't appreciate it at all, and even if he might understand, it's just still going to lose me what ever ground I've been trying to gain. "It might help, if you started using her actual name."
"She told you her name?" There's confusion, curiosity and a little guilt in there. That's before I crush it though and leave room for his anger in the wake of the truth.
"No, she told Banner." We both had the same concerns. Leaving someone who could affect human flesh alone in a room with the man who contains the Hulk was a huge risk. But even though we both agreed not to be physically present in the room, I wasn't going to leave them entirely unsupervised. I spied on them. It won't matter to Steve that I told J.A.R.V.I.S to mute any parts of the conversation that fell under patient confidentiality, and therefore only heard her name out of the entire conversation. All he will see is that I spied. "But you should get it from her, not me."
SUNDAY, JUNE 3RD 2012
1910 HOURS
PEPPER POTTS CABIN, WOODSTOCK NY
2565 ROUTE 212
STEVE
"So I have to respect her privacy, but you don't?" For the last year, I've been listening to how my friend of spoke of her sister with love, so I'm trying really hard to get along with her, but then Natasha goes and says things like that.
And she does at again. "She knew I'd be watching Steve, and no, you don't have to. But I can't imagine a situation where you wouldn't." ?But the exact opposite effect. My irritation turns into shame, just for the fact I implied I would.
Let it go. It's not a fight worth having. Warring amongst ourselves isn't going to help Nora. When did that ever become part of me? Walking away from a fight, instead of chasing it? I'll wonder about that later though, because it doesn't matter now. I have other thoughts that take precedence. "Why would she tell him that, and not us? She hardly even knows him."
"Perhaps that's why Steve." She offer is she takes another drink like all of this is nothing to her. "When Bruce looks at her, he's just looking at her. He's not looking for someone else in her." I know to you 'Nora Eliane' was your friend, but to her 'Nora Elaine' was a lie that was forced on her. You need to stop looking for her and start looking at her."
All those words do is remind me of hers. A month after meeting Nora I found out a secret I didn't even know she was keeping. "Your eyes changed? you know now, don't you? I'm sorry. I probably should have told you. It's just... it was so nice. Everybody else, they look at me like they can see a crack and there just waiting for it to break so they can bring out the glue. You looked at me like I was normal."
It's not the same but it's got enough similarities. Nora hated the way people tiptoed around her waiting for the broken version of her to appear, and I am basically doing the same damn thing. Im tiptoeing around her, hoping for the familiar version of her to appear. God I'm such an idiot. Of course she'd like Banner, it's the same reason she liked me so much when we first met. He has no expectations of how she should be, just how she is.
SUNDAY, JUNE 3RD 2012
1911 HOURS
PEPPER POTTS CABIN, WOODSTOCK NY
2565 ROUTE 212
NATASHA
And the guilty look comes back at race track speeds. It's almost to watch is he drops his weight and elbow on to the table, while burying his face in his hand. "I know..." He finally admits after letting out a sigh and running his hand over his hair is he straightens back up. "It's just, a month ago, I thought everything was fine. I thought she was safe and she was still the woman I knew. Then she pointed a weapon at me, attacked people, says she killed a man, and is stripping for strangers without hesitation!" He finishes with a passionate flourish of his hand, before everything just melts back out of him is his hand sinks listly back to the table.
"I don't know this woman, but I don't know how to to not see Nora when that's Nora's face?" The desperate hopefulness in his expression definitely hurts.
"I can't help you with that Steve." I meant it is a comforting gesture, but the way his eyes linger on my hand over his makes me keep the touch short. "This is something you need to figure out yourself, and with her. Any help I give is really just cheating, and in this situation nobody benefits from that."
"I know" he sighs is he rests his forehead against his palm and glances longingly at the staircase by the windows. "It's just, before she might have had her quirks, but I could still figure out what she wanted. Now I can't even find a clue."
"She wants to talk to S.H.I.E.L.D" Well, that definitely got his attention.
SUNDAY, JUNE 3RD 2012
1912 HOURS
PEPPER POTTS CABIN, WOODSTOCK NY
2565 ROUTE 212
STEVE
"What?" I can't believe I heard that right, except that her expression is clearly saying I did. "No, absolutely not! Whatever she wants you can get it."
"Except I can't." She doesn't even seem fazed by my refusal, and just lets it roll easily over her head is she meets it with her counter argument. "She wants answers Steve, and I can give her some, but she's never going just to take my words is truths again."
Because you spent her entire know life lying to her! The vindictive part of my brain chimes in before I push it back. I can be petty, or I can be productive in this discussion and i'm inclined toward the latter. "But you think she'll just take theirs?"
"No, I think she'll take the proof he can bring her."
SUNDAY, JUNE 3RD 2012
1912 HOURS
PEPPER POTTS CABIN, WOODSTOCK NY
2565 ROUTE 212
NATASHA
"Who's he?" I knew that would get his attention, narrowing it down from an organization to an individual.
"She's got an ally on the Council. His name's Alexander Pierce." Watching his eyes shift from suspicion to surprise just confirms I was right about the work I'd have to put in on this.
SUNDAY, JUNE 3RD 2012
1912 HOURS
PEPPER POTTS CABIN, WOODSTOCK NY
2565 ROUTE 212
STEVE
The name threw me for a second, because I had Nora's voice in my head asking about him. Then I remembered more of her words, and how one of them was Jr. Nora wasn't asking about the man Natasha's talking about, she's talking about Pierce Sr. "The father of the man Nora claims she killed! You're kidding right?"
"No. I'm not." I don't understand how she can look so calm about that. The emotion in her face isn't any more then is if she was saying she wanted chocolate not vanilla. "He wants to meet her, and she wants to meet him. This is actually a good thing." Watching my eyebrows shoot up doesn't even slow her down. "If we let this happen it gives her what she wants, and it strengthens his case with the Council. They've always viewed her a bit like a nuke. Something incredibly danger that everyone either wants or wants to destroy. Letting them have a conversation will help prove that she's not a button's push away from blowing up, might get her a 2nd ally from the Councilman who's already on the fence."
"But we don't know that." Maybe Natasha really can separate the emotion out of it just is easily is she seem to be able to. But I don't know about that about this man, and for lack of of another suspect so far, this Pierce Sr believes my friend killed his son. "You saw what she did downstairs."
SUNDAY, JUNE 3RD 2012
1913 HOURS
PEPPER POTTS CABIN, WOODSTOCK NY
2565 ROUTE 212
NATASHA
I get his reluctance. If I didn't know Pierce personally I would be reluctant to let him talk to his son's killer too. But I know the man, and that knowledge cancels Steve's argument in my opinion. "Yes, after she woke up, trapped in a room with a stranger who was doing things without her consent. This time she asked."
It doesn't cancel it in his opinion though."And what if that's just to get him here? What if she just wants to make S.H.I.E.L.D pay?"
The fact he feels the need to ask these questions is fine to me. I'd prefer it. It's better to work out these concerns in advance, then for him to just hold them in and worry. He might still keep the worry, but at least he'll understand the logic."If she wanted to hurt him she wouldn't have asked. These people seem to live for thousands of Steve. She's got no reason to hurry."
That reminder silences him for a second. "Okay. Fine. Maybe your right." I've known, and most of S.H.I.E.L.D's higher level Agents have know for a very long time how different Nora's life span was from ours and we came to terms with it. I forgot that Steve's just recently found that out. It has to be strange for him, to realize his 'younger' friend might actually have century's on him
"But we need to be in there with her." Yet it still doesn't do anything to lessen his need to protect her.
"Don't take this the wrong way Steve, but we definitely 'shouldn't' be there for this conversation." He honest to god looks offended that I'd even suggest that, but I don't let that emotion slow me down. "She's trying to fill in the blank spaces of her life, and she may not want to share what she finds out. You shouldn't force her to have to. Every decisions that mattered for the last three years has been made for her, even now we're still kind of doing that. She hasn't asked to leave because she know we won't even let her outside, and she's just resigned herself to that since it's what she's used to from us. It's time to start turning that around, and we need to make some concessions to do that."
He still looks offended but there's also a lot of frustration now that dwarfs that, and resignation. "You're right, I know you're right but what about his safety? If she does anything to him, the entire world will come for her."
"We'll take precautions Steve." I offer with a soft smile. "And we have a J.A.R.V.I.S."