AN: Hey everyone! Sorry it's been a while – back to school and all that (joy). But here's the next chapter. Heads up, though – bad science alert. I'm just making the sciencey stuff up as I go along (trying to keep it vaguely believable, but come on. I mean – superheroes) Andddd…Yeah. Hope you like. Not a lot of Penny/Bruce interaction, but unfortunately, I have to get plot into this fic somehow.

Xxx

~Fen~

9. Regretful Jolly Green

Bruce felt like an idiot.

He'd gone and ruined everything. He'd managed to destroy Penny's life, and then their friendship in less than three hours.

Shit.

Bruce felt the Other Guy stirring restlessly, upset, reflecting Bruce's own turmoil. He couldn't believe he'd spoken to Penny that way. That he'd told her they'd never work…That he'd…called her perfect.

Well, she is.

It was true. For him, Penny was perfect. She was kind, intelligent, a scientist focussed on helping others…And she'd wanted to help him so badly. Her dedication to aiding him in his search for a cure was something that he admired. He hadn't had someone helping him like that in a long, long time. And Bruce didn't exactly have a long list of people lining up to help him. The only bad thing was the Other Guy's weird fascination with her. He wanted to meet her face-to-face, Bruce knew that much, but other than that, he had no idea what had captivated the Hulk's interest so much.

Dammit, Banner. You've fucked everything up now.

Not to mention that she'd… Once again, she'd surprised him by offering friendship. He couldn't remember the last time someone had trusted him enough to touch them, and she'd let him not only hug her, but then lift her up, too. Bruce would be lying if he said that lifting her up had only been a scientific experiment. For a few seconds, he just wanted to have close contact with someone. The hug had offered him only a tiny taste, and he'd craved the contact even more after letting go. Hence his reluctance to let go of her, once they'd discovered how light she was.

And she'd felt so good in his arms. He could have held her close for hours on end. He would never get tired of it.

Bruce found himself growing red at the memory of poking his head around the curtain, to find Penny clad in only pants and her bra. While he'd immediately jumped back, that hadn't been before he caught a glimpse of her pale, creamy skin. Needless to say, his heart-rate spiked considerably in the aftermath that followed his fumble. Even thinking about it made his heart leap.

She's so beautiful.

No. Stop doing this to yourself. You just… Stop. Give up. You just pushed her away. It would never work now.

To try and draw his mind away from thoughts of his latest screw-up, Bruce focussed on the readings in front of him. He was running some scans on her blood, setting up the sample that he'd taken while she was sleeping, checking to see how much the gamma had altered her DNA, or if it were possibly reversible.

Who am I kidding? Of course it's not reversible.

I've just gone and ruined this girl's life.

The amount of self-loathing Bruce had felt when he fractured Penny's arm was nothing to what he felt now. When she'd walked out earlier…it had been hard for him to watch, but necessary. She didn't deserve someone like him. He'd already allowed himself to get too close. He'd already admitted to himself that it was for more than just comfort that he'd hugged her earlier, and more than just experimenting when he lifted her. He'd wanted to feel her in his arms, to just pretend for five minutes that maybe he could have a functioning relationship with someone.

That five minutes was over.

The computer beeped as it finished running its scans, and Bruce glanced up. He had a colossal headache – the product of stress, too much work, and not enough sleep – and the beeping sound grated against his ears. He lifted his glasses briefly to rub his eyes, before letting them drop back in place, and he looked at the screen. He quickly scanned over the analysis, expecting something similar to his own blood – gamma growths on the blood and DNA double helix.

What he found was something completely different.

Her entire DNA structure was different. She didn't have a double helix…it looked like she had a triple helix in some areas, almost. Like it was thicker, double over. Which was impossible. It wasn't just a growth, it was a fully submersed mutation. It bewildered Bruce, because the gamma shouldn't have altered it to that extent.

'What…?' he squinted at the screen, and tapped a few buttons, bringing up a closer image. 'That's not…'

There were only a few sections that were recognisable as human DNA. Parts of it, he discovered when he compared it to avian genomes, were similar to that of a bird. This didn't surprise Bruce, since Penny had a pair of wings, and was now as light as a feather, but what did surprise him was that there were parts of it in which the majority of the DNA was utterly different to that of a human's. There was one particular pattern that repeated with great frequency, but it was something that Bruce had never come across. What's more, from the looks of it, Bruce concluded that Penny had possessed that pattern before the gamma accident.

Which meant that she'd never been normal.

Bruce was in the middle of running her DNA through SHIELD's database, using its extensive record of DNA sequences for almost every species known to humans – and some that weren't – to find any traceable patterns in Penny's genes. Just as he set it up, someone walked through the doors. Bruce didn't look up from his work, but hoped it was Penny. He doubted it though, after treating her so horribly previously.

'Hey, Big Guy. How goes the DNA scans?' Tony asked, and walked over to Bruce, leaning against the tabletop. 'And speaking of comparisons, where is Angel? Don't tell me she wandered off to test her new wings?'

Bruce ignored the Other Guy, who snarled at the loose way to which Tony referred to Penny. Like she was incompetent or inconsequential.

Or perhaps it was guilt that made the Other Guy restless.

Bruce didn't answer Tony, but instead pulled the analysis of her DNA up for him to see. 'Look at this. I don't know what the gamma changed, but most of this looks…'

Tony glanced it over, and rose an eyebrow. 'Like it was already there,' he finished with a small smile.

'What is it?' Bruce asked. He was clueless. Perhaps the billionaire would have a theory.

Tony frowned, checking the analysis with more concentration. After a while, he made a sound.

'Hmm.'

'Hmm?' Bruce inquired. 'You might have to be more specific.'

'You know the X-Men, right?' Tony inquired. Bruce stared at him blankly. 'My God,' Tony gasped exasperatedly. 'You have got to get some cultural experience. After this blows over, you're definitely coming to Stark Towers.'

Bruce rolled his eyes. 'Do you have a point?'

Tony nodded, peered at Bruce with a small frown on his face. 'Well. In the X-Men – both comics and movies, by the way – there's this thing called the "X-Gene". It's what makes certain people – mutants – special. Only a few of them have it.' He squinted at the screen. 'If I were to hazard a guess… or provide an analogy… Penny's got something like the "X-Gene". Only…if the mutants have the "X-Gene", then what Dr Masters has is something more akin to…a "Y-Gene".' Tony frowned. 'I dunno. I just made that term up. But what I mean, is that it's similar, but not the same. Hers appeared to be dormant, whereas in the X-Men, they have their powers already. Their genes were active. The gamma must have advanced her mutation, or activated it out of dormancy, I guess.'

Bruce frowned. 'So…You're saying that it was already there, only dormant. And the gamma unlocked it?' He pondered that for a moment. 'It would make sense.'

'Angel was already one of the gifted kids,' Tony grinned.

Bruce worked to keep a scowl from his face. Tony's referral to Penny as "Angel" irritated him. He didn't know why. 'Her name is Penny,' he said quietly, pretending to be interested in a particular aspect of the helix. He saw Tony smirk out of the corner of his eye.

'I'll bet she's Penny. What ever happened to "Dr Masters"? Surely you're breaking some kind of sacred Bruce Banner Oath of Detachment by referring to her with such familiarity?' Tony grinned. 'Or am I just imagining things?'

Bruce looked up at him through his glasses. 'I'm sure I have no idea what you imagine, Tony. All I know is that a friend has been hurt because of me, and I'll do everything in my power to help her.'

Tony smirked once more. 'Touchy, touchy,' he grinned, before pulling out a small, glass device. 'Speaking of touchy, JARVIS has nearly finished hacking the SHIELD mainframe. Once you're done here, I suggest you come up to the lab to watch the showdown. I'm hoping that Fury will be… furious,' he grinned mischievously.

'Are you always such a child?' Bruce asked, although he was smiling. The billionaire's boyish humour was refreshing, in an immature kind of way. Aboard the Helicarrier, there wasn't exactly room for messing around, but Tony still managed to do so.

'Only if anything remotely serious is involved. Or governments. In this case, it happens to be both,' Tony shrugged, and made his way back to the door. 'You might want to think about checking up on the Tesseract scans, too. I reckon we might be close to finding it, now that we've got Loki's magic stick to play with.'

Bruce nodded. 'Yeah, alright. I get it. You want me up in the lab. I'll be done down here soon, and then you can show off to your heart's content. Just…don't make the situation worse, Tony. It's bad enough that we're prying into SHIELD's secrets. But to expose them?' He frowned. 'Maybe I shouldn't be around when you lift the curtain.'

Tony shrugged. 'Your choice. It's either that, or sit down here, waiting for Angel to come back. And that's a lost cause right there. Don't bother. She's gone back to her room to rest.'

Bruce straightened. 'Penny? How do you know?'

'I may have bumped into a certain Capsicle on the way down here. Said she'd been up on the roof, taking a spin with her new wings. I wasn't kidding when I said she'd wandered off earlier,' Tony remarked, and Bruce couldn't stop the shock from showing on his face.

'But she would have been blown away,' he said.

Tony shook his head. 'Nah. America had a tight grip, as I understand it. They used some rope. Gives a whole new meaning to the term "bondage".'

Bruce felt the Other Guy growl, and ignored any emotions that surfaced at the mention of the Captain and Penny together. Tony seemed to notice his discomfort, and smiled knowingly.

'If you're really worried, you could go make sure she's alright, before joining us in the lab. I'm sure she'd appreciate it.'

Bruce shook his head. 'I'm kinda inclined to doubt that. Our last conversation wasn't exactly…pleasant.'

Tony rose an eyebrow. 'Jolly Green, there's nothing you could say to that girl to make her hate you. I have it on good authority that she's more likely to feel emotions of the opposite sort.'

'And whose authority is that?' Bruce asked, unable to help himself. Tony thought she still liked him?

'JARVIS's. I may have watched the heart-warming self-sacrifice of Dr Masters, when she was trying to cure you earlier,' Tony winced dramatically. 'And the conversation that came before. And the – uh – kiss. And then everything that happened when she woke up. When I said "touchy"…'

Bruce felt his face warm. 'That wasn't – '

'Hey, listen. Like I said earlier: you're tip-toeing. You need to strut. Go strut. Talk to her. Fix whatever you said.'

'It would never work, Tony,' Bruce said, exasperated.

Stark shrugged. 'It's the end of the world, Bruce. In the grand scheme of things, "never" is a pretty short time.'

Those were Tony's parting words before he left the med bay, leaving Bruce to ponder on them.

"Fix whatever you said."

Could he fix it? As he stood and pulled his glasses off, Bruce certainly hoped so.

Penny was exhausted.

Her trials with Steve had been less than brilliant, and she soon found that while she might have the physical ability to fly, by no definition did she have the coordination or control. Metaphorically speaking, she was still learning to walk. It was silly of her to try and run.

Consequently, she was covered in bruises from head to toe, after crashing to the ground multiple times. The best that she got was when Steve essentially treated her as a kite, the rope tied around her waist, as she let her wings catch the wind.

Unfortunately, any further ideas of experimenting had gone down the drain much sooner than she expected, as Steve was called away by Fury. Penny assumed that the rest of the Avengers Initiative would have been summoned too, and so she decided to go back to her room for some well-deserved rest. Bruce had been right. The gamma had taken all the energy out of her.

She pulled Bruce's jumper back on, which she'd taken off earlier, and felt a guilty pang of longing as his smell enveloped her. She collapsed onto her bed with a muffled groan, as she realised that she wouldn't be able to sleep on her back.

Ever again.

Oh for God's sake.

Penny couldn't sleep on her stomach. She couldn't. It made her feel like she couldn't breathe. With a grumble, she settled for a compromise, taking off Bruce's jumper mournfully, and lying on her side, with her wings stretched out behind her, her front facing the wall. Instead of wearing the jumper, she scrunched it up into a ball and hugged it to her chest, trying not to think about pretending that it was the jumper's owner that she was clutching.

You've really screwed this up, haven't you? Penny thought to herself, just before she fell asleep.

Bruce tapped his knuckles on Penny's door lightly, hoping that maybe she was there. He only had a short amount of time before Fury wanted to meet him back at the lab, to discuss Tony's blatant abuse of SHIELD cooperation, no doubt. He couldn't picture the one-eyed man taking kindly to his system being hacked by a person he viewed as a liability. And Bruce knew that was what Fury thought about them. Every single one of them was a liability; some more than others. Bruce was probably at the top of that list, just underneath Loki, in terms of people that Fury would be unwilling to ever trust fully.

When there was no answer, Bruce turned to leave. He guessed that he'd just have to check on Penny later. However, a hollow, English, polite sounding voice stopped him.

'Dr Banner. I do believe you have clearance to enter Dr Masters' chambers.'

Bruce froze. 'Who's there?' he asked cautiously, glancing around. After a few seconds, he saw no one, but the voice spoke again.

'My name is JARVIS. I'm an AI developed by Mr Stark.'

Bruce frowned…JARVIS…The name was familiar. Hadn't Tony been talking about something called JARVIS hacking the SHIELD mainframe earlier? He smiled wryly. 'So you're the little virus that Tony's got rooting through all of SHIELD's deepest, darkest secrets, are you?' he asked, trying not to feel like a fool as he spoke to nothing.

'The politically correct term is Artificial Intelligence,' the computer said, and Bruce almost laughed. Was that a disgruntled tone he heard? Stark really had created an intelligence. 'And I do believe you were about to check on Dr Masters,' the voice continued.

'She's not in,' Bruce shook his head, and turned to leave.

'Actually, Doctor, she is. She's resting. Her current heart rate is steady, so I think it's safe to assume she's asleep. However, as I mentioned before, you do have clearance to enter.'

Bruce frowned. Why would he have clearance? Fury surely wouldn't have sanctioned that. Not after his display in lack of control during the previous day. 'I'm sure you're mistaken, JARVIS. Fury would never trust me that much.'

'Quite right, Dr Banner. But Mr Stark cleared you for access to her room a few hours ago.'

Bruce frowned at thin air. Did he now?

'Oh, well, that's very kind of him, but I think I'll just let her rest.'

'Mr Stark has instructed me to advise you that perhaps you should take this opportunity to speak with her. Judging from the urgency of Fury's summoning, Mr Stark doesn't believe you'll have a lot of time to talk to her in the near future. Your work with the Tesseract will take priority.'

Bruce frowned. Not speak to Penny? The idea distressed him more than he wanted to admit. He felt the Other Guy stir restlessly, and decided that perhaps laying eyes on her wouldn't be such a bad thing after all.

'Alright, fine. Can you open the door for me then, JARVIS?' he asked the computer, and was rewarded with a soft click as the latch on the door opened.

'Of course, Dr Banner. Mr Stark has also instructed me to leave you with a message, in the event that you did request to enter the room, which you have just done.'

'And?' Bruce asked, as he stepped through the door.

'I do believe he said: "Go get 'er, Brucie." And that's quoting him directly, Doctor.' If Bruce was hearing correctly, it sounded as if the AI were embarrassed.

Bruce laughed softly, and closed the door behind him as he stepped inside the room.

What he found surprised him.

While his own room was bare, no decorations or furnishings other than what was already there, Penny's was littered with personal effects. There were various items of clothing scattered about the room, although it still maintained a neat quality. Bruce pointedly ignored the pale blue bra hanging over a chair, and cleared his throat out of force of habit, shooing all thoughts from his mind.

Keep your head in the game, Banner, he self-coached, as his gaze fell upon Penny, who stirred as he cleared his throat.

She was curled up on the bed, knees drawn up, and arms wrapped around something he couldn't see. She looked peaceful, but Bruce knew that she must be anything but. Surely, she hated him now? As soon as he'd spoken to her earlier, he'd regretted it. Of course she would hate him. He'd told her that…that they'd never work. They weren't compatible. It was true, but it didn't make it hurt any less.

He knew that she at least had some small degree of affection for him – he just knew it. He'd seen the heart rate monitors. Hers had mirrored his own. For the first time in years, he'd let someone in, and then he'd completely ruined everything. Inevitably.

Great job you've done here, he thought bitterly.

Her hair was down, spread across the pillow behind her in soft waves from being in a braid. Bruce resisted the urge to run his hands through it, and tried to push away any thoughts of how soft it would feel, of how nice it would be to just reach out and –

No. Stop this. Who are you kidding? She'd never want you to touch her now. Not after the accident. Not after what you said.

He didn't want to wake her up, but didn't want to leave, either. To take his mind of the decision of staying or going, he looked around her room for a second. His gaze was drawn to the wall that was completely plastered with various sketches and drawings. Had she done them all while she was there on the Helicarrier? He saw various ones of animals: foxes, tigers, wolves, giraffes, eagles – her taste in subject matter seemed to be eclectic – but then he saw the ones of him.

Apparently the one she'd drawn the other day wasn't the only one. It certainly didn't seem like it, as he could see quite a few small, sketchy copies of himself staring back at him. Strewn across the table were multiple pencils and paint brushes, and in the very centre was a painting of a DNA double helix. It took Bruce less than a second to recognise it as his own. Somehow, she'd managed to make it look beautiful. He remembered her words from the other day: "You're quite remarkable." Was this how she saw it? If so, Bruce was having a hard time trying to convince himself that it would be better if she hated him. It was hard for him to ignore that there was someone in the world that saw a good in him, and not just because they wanted to use him.

Once more, Penny stirred, mumbling something incoherently as her wings twitched. He resisted the urge to stroke one – he knew that they were ridiculously soft from earlier. Taking a careful step towards her, Bruce saw that she was clutching her glasses with one hand, and had some kind of fabric under the other. A blanket?

His jumper.

Bruce felt his heart rate skip a beat as an irrational thought sprung to mind. What if she was sleeping with it…because she still had feelings for him? Was it possible that he hadn't completely obliterated them earlier?

Cautiously, slowly, Bruce pulled her glasses from her grasp, and put them on the bedside table. Then he noticed something else.

She shouldn't have been sleeping on her arm that way.

The one that she'd – no, he'd – fractured had the majority of Penny's torso lying over it. She shouldn't have been able to do that without it causing her discomfort.

Maybe her arm healed when the gamma hit her? Bruce wondered, and decided to ask her about it when she awoke. If she ever spoke to him again.

As if on cue, Penny's eyelids fluttered open, and she stared up at Bruce sleepily.

'Bruce?' she asked, confused, and he felt his eyes widen. He should not have been in her room.

'It's just a dream, Penny,' he soothed shakily. 'Go back to sleep, and I'll go away.'

'But…I…' She frowned. 'I don't want you to go away,' she said groggily, and Bruce felt his throat tighten. This woman would be the death of him.

'Well then… I – uh – won't go away,' he promised. 'You just have to close your eyes again.'

Suddenly, her eyes widened, and he knew that she was waking up. 'Please don't leave,' she whispered softly, and he saw awareness start creeping back into her eyes. He needed her to go back to sleep. Now. She wouldn't appreciate him being in her room without her permission.

'I'm not going anywhere, Penny. Just close your eyes, and I promise I'll be here when you wake up.'

'That's what you…always say…' she said softly as her eyes closed, and Bruce froze.

'You dream about me?' he asked quietly, but she'd already fallen back asleep. He frowned at her sleeping form for a few seconds before making a rash decision.

Swiftly, before he could change his mind, he leant down and pressed a soft kiss to her temple. 'I'm sorry. You're still perfect, Penny,' he whispered, and could have sworn that she smiled. Hastily, he pulled away and retreated to the door. He'd seen that she was fine – or relatively so. She probably just needed to sleep, and then she'd be alright. Ish.

As he closed the door, his gaze was drawn to a picture of two people. They looked very similar to Penny, and Bruce was willing to bet they were her parents. He wondered what they were doing now, to warrant that Penny should sketch the two of them. Then he remembered the "CLASSIFIED" section on Penny's file. Perhaps there was something about them in there? But why would it be classified? Certainly, now, Bruce's interest was piqued.

It was time to unveil SHIELD's secrets once and for all.

A while later:

It's a wonder she's even on board this ship, Bruce marvelled to himself after reading Penny's recently un-classified file. While Tony focussed on SHIELD's more nefarious actions, Bruce had discretely looked at her file straight away.

What he found was shocking.

His earlier curiosity as to why there was a sketch of her parents in her room had been satisfied. To put it simply, they were dead.

To put it more complicatedly – it was SHIELD's fault they were dead.

They'd both been SHIELD agents. Originally just her father – an American. But then her mother – who was British – was recruited as an emissary, then later moved onto field work, and the two of them worked together. Then, when an operation in Barcelona went awry, due to a novice agent blowing their cover, they'd both been caught in the collateral. They'd died when Penny was just twelve years old.

Bruce couldn't fathom how or why Penny could have agreed to work for SHIELD, if her parents had died that way. No person in their right mind would want to work for the agency that killed their parents…unless she didn't know? That particular thought troubled Bruce a lot. If she was here without knowing the history of her parents…that was an abuse of trust and awareness, surely?

Fury must have known if she either did or didn't know. Either way, the decision to bring her aboard was twisted. Bruce felt the Other Guy stir, shifting restlessly as Bruce thought about Fury using Penny's innocence against her, just to get what he wanted.

Calm down. I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for everything.

But is there? There's never a reasonable answer when the government is involved.

Bruce shook his head to himself, earning a strange look from Tony. No. Don't look into it too much. Focus on what she needs right now. Not what she might not know.

'Hey, Brucie. You know Penny's folks were agents here?' Tony glanced up from a computer screen, and sent Bruce a knowing look. 'And now she's working here. Who'da thunk it?' Apparently the billionaire had gotten bored of looking through SHIELD's secret files, and had taken a minor detour.

Bruce sighed. 'I'm sure it's nothing, Tony. Just focus on SHIELD. Penny isn't your problem.'

'Are you implying that she's yours?' Tony asked coyly, and Bruce rolled his eyes, trying to cover the pang of sadness that rang throughout his mind.

'Tony. You know nothing like that could ever work. I'm far too…volatile. Having a relationship with me would be like having a relationship with a rabid dog. Sooner or later, somebody's gonna get bitten.'

'It's a lucky thing Penny's good with animals then,' Tony smirked. 'I mean, that's part of the reason they brought her in, I assume. Her work with animals?' He paused, frowning in thought. 'Also, possibly the fact that she's a renowned biologist, has numerous degrees, already has ties to SHIELD through her parents, and – oh – looks like your ex.'

Bruce glared at Tony. Why was the man so compelled to push his buttons? The other day, it hadn't worked – Bruce was used to keeping his cool around irritating people; those unaware of the true threat that he posed. But after Penny's accident…he was feeling slightly more fragile than usual.

At that moment, Nick Fury walked in, a murderous look upon his face. 'What are you doing, Mr Stark?' he asked dangerously, and Tony rose an eyebrow.

'Kinda been wondering the same thing about you,' the genius said with a shrug.

'You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract,' Fury growled, and Bruce felt the need to step in. SHIELD was keeping secrets, and now Fury was acting as if they were the ones in the wrong? However, this conversation also needed a peace-keeping medium. Bruce figured he could try.

'We are. The model's locked, and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile,' Bruce said calmly, pointing at one of the computers.

Tony was tapping away at a screen. 'And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss,' he said without looking up. Then he paused. 'What is Phase 2?'

As he spoke, Steve walked in, and dropped a large, heavy, futuristic looking assault rifle on the table with a clang. 'Phase 2 is SHIELD used the cube to make weapons,' Steve said tersely. 'Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me.'

Fury's eye widened, and he tried to explain himself. 'Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're…'

Tony interrupted the director, 'I'm sorry, Nick. What were you lying?' he turned around his screen to display many plans for different weapons and even…Did Bruce see warheads there? Tony looked smug, although his tone had bordered on angry.

Steve was definitely angry. 'I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit,' he said bitterly. Another two people walked into the lab – this time Thor and Agent Romanoff. People were just turning up all over the place. From the stony expression on Romanoff's face, Bruce gathered that she already knew what was happening.

'Did you know about this?' Bruce asked her angrily, and saw her eyes widen.

'You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?' she suggested, and he shook his head.

'I was in Calcutta,' Bruce said shortly. 'I was pretty well removed.'

'Loki's manipulating you,' she insisted, and Bruce felt the Other Guy stir at the accusation.

'And you've been doing what exactly?' he scoffed.

Romanoff laughed. 'You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you.'

No. I came because you promised me a cure, and look at how that panned out. 'Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy,' Bruce said. 'I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction,' he pointed at the screen.

Fury glanced around at the group, exasperated, as if searching for someone who would support him. His gaze fell on Romanoff, but even she didn't step up. 'Because of him,' he said eventually, pointing at Thor.

The Asgardian looked shocked. 'Me?' he exclaimed.

Fury nodded. 'Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet, who had a grudge mass that levelled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly – hilariously – outgunned.'

Thor looked affronted. 'My people want nothing but peace with your planet.'

'But you're not the only people out there, are you?' Fury snapped. 'And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched. They can't be controlled.'

'Like you controlled the cube?' Steve spoke up. Bruce had to agree with the soldier's accusation. Apparently, so did Thor.

'Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies,' the blonde-haired god said. 'It is the signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war.'

'A higher form?' questioned Steve.

'You forced our hand,' Fury insisted, looking to Thor. 'We had to come up with something.'

Tony pulled a face. 'A nuclear deterrent. 'Cause that always calms everything right down.'

'Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?' Fury bristled.

Steve seemed to agree with the director on that point. 'I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep – '

'Wait, wait. Hold on,' Tony interrupted. 'How is this now about me?'

'I'm sorry, isn't everything?' Steve countered. Bruce couldn't believe how childish it all was. He could feel his temper slowly rising, as the intensity of the situation increased with every passing second.

'I thought humans were more evolved than this,' Thor said haughtily.

'Excuse me?' Fury snapped. 'Did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?'

'Did you always give your champions such mistrust?' Thor asked, and Natasha finally spoke.

'Are you all really that naïve?' she challenged the god. 'SHIELD monitors threats.'

This caught Tony's attention. 'You're on that list?' he asked Steve. 'Are you above or below angry bees?' Steve took a step towards him. 'Threatening!' Tony yelled. 'I feel threatened!'

Stop being such a child, Bruce groaned to himself. The man was incorrigible.

'I swear to God, Stark. One more crack…' Steve threatened, and Bruce couldn't help but agree. Everyone was making an already stressful situation worse. Bruce wished Penny were there. She'd know what to do.

'You speak of control, yet you court chaos,' Thor observed, and Bruce couldn't help it. He had to say something.

'It's his MO, isn't it?' Bruce asked. 'I mean, what are we – a team?' He shook his head. 'No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're... We're a time-bomb.' He found the analogy more than apt, since the Other Guy was involved. It was only a matter of time…

'You need to step away,' Fury said softly, and Bruce realised that he'd moved closer to the group than he'd been earlier.

'Why shouldn't they guy let off a little steam?' Tony grinned, and threw his arm around Bruce's shoulders. Bruce tensed.

Get off me, you idiot. You have no idea what you're messing with.

Thankfully, Steve came to his rescue. 'You know damn well why! Back off!' he shouted at Tony, ripping his arm away from Bruce.

Calm thoughts. It's fine. Think of something calming. Think of Penny.

'Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me,' Tony said softly, getting in Steve's face.

'Yeah, big man in a suit of armour,' Steve smirked. 'Take that off, what are you?'

Point blank, Tony let off a string of answers. 'Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist,' he said, far too smugly.

'I know guys with none of that, worth ten of you,' Steve growled. 'I've seen the footage.

The only thing you really fight for is yourself.' Steve's tone had gotten darker, and Bruce sensed that this was evidently a touchy subject for the solider. 'You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play… To lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you.'

'I think I would just cut the wire,' Tony said with a smile.

'Always a way out,' Steve said bitterly. 'You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero.'

Something appeared to snap in Tony. 'A hero, like you?' he exclaimed. 'You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle.'

That seemed to do it for Steve. 'Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds,' he challenged.

Thor laughed. 'You people are so petty. And tiny,' he scoffed.

The two men stepped away from each other, finally seeming to remember themselves.

'Yes. Right,' Bruce agreed. For someone so ineloquent, Thor certainly had a way of summing things up.

Fury cut across him. 'Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr Banner back to his – '

'Where?' Bruce asked. 'You rented my room,' he said bitterly. Behind him, he heard the door slide open, but didn't really care who it was. Only that it was another person to add to the stressful cocktail that was the laboratory, and the egos of the people contained within it.

Fury shook his head. 'The cell was just – '

'In case you needed to kill me,' Bruce shrugged. 'But you can't!' he exclaimed, exasperated now. People just weren't getting it. 'I know. I tried.' He let out a sigh. 'I got low. I didn't see an end…So I put a bullet in my mouth…' he stared darkly at the team around him, willing them to see. 'And the Other Guy spit it out.' Bruce managed to calm his tone. Marginally. 'So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good, until you dragged me back into this freak show, and put everyone here at risk.' He looked to Natasha, who was getting more and more unnerved as he spoke. 'You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?' Bruce could feel the Other Guy broiling beneath the surface, itching to be let out.

Natasha's hand went to her gun, as did Fury's. Did they not know that it just wouldn't work? Nothing would save them from him!

'Bruce.'

He spun to face the owner of the soft voice, and felt a guilty shame as he saw Penny standing behind him. His jumper was wrapped around her waist, and her wings slumped, jutting out of the shirt he'd altered for her. She looked dishevelled, but mostly it was her face that caught his attention. She had tears in her eyes. She took a half step towards him, but Bruce backed away. His control was fracturing, and once more, Penny was there.

Again.

However, instantly, the Other Guy backed off, as if Penny were a deterrent. Now he was no longer itching to get out in a fit of rage, but more curious…as if he wanted to comfort her. Why was she crying?

When she spoke, her voice was so small, and he could hear the pain in it. That being said, while it should have been hard to hear over the din the people around them were causing, it was as if she were the only person in the room speaking.

'Bruce…you didn't really…?' It was like she couldn't bring herself to say the words. He didn't really what?

Try to kill yourself, his genius brain realised was the end of her sentence. Oh, God. She heard that? He felt his grip tighten and – wait, tighten?

'Dr Banner,' Steve said. 'Put down the sceptre.'

What?

Bruce looked down at his hands to see that they were clutching Loki's staff. How the hell had that happened? He looked back to Penny, who was still standing there, looking haunted, her gaze boring into him, not even realising that he was holding a weapon of mass destruction.

At that moment, a computer beeped, and both his and Tony's attention were drawn to the large computer.

'All right,' Tony grinned, and Bruce let out his held breath.

'Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my party trick after all,' he murmured, grateful for the distraction of the Tesseract, grateful to be distracted from Penny's boring gaze, and grateful that the Other Guy had calmed down. He put the sceptre down, and started glancing over the screen with the readings.

'Located the Tesseract?' Thor asked, and Tony nodded, but then frowned.

'I can get there faster,' Tony insisted, seeing that the god was rearing to go.

'The Tesseract belongs on Asgard,' Thor insisted. 'No human is a match for it.'

Apparently Tony didn't care, because he turned to leave. 'You're not going alone!' Steve objected.

'You gonna stop me?' Tony challenged.

'Put on the suit, let's find out,' Steve said, equally as angry.

'I'm not afraid to hit an old man,' Tony insisted, and Bruce could practically see the testosterone emanating from the two men. It was almost tangible.

'Put. On. The. Suit.'

Bruce looked down at the screen next to him, trying to distract himself from the happenings around him, and felt Penny step beside him, placing a soft hand on his elbow. He was about to say something to her – try to explain himself, something, anything to stop the haunted look that still graced her beautiful face – when a reading on the screen caught his eye. 'Oh, my God,' he whispered, and felt Penny's grip tighten on his arm.

'What is – ' she started, but was cut off as a huge explosion rocked the ship. She screamed, and Bruce reached out for her as they were all thrown across the room.

Because that's when the floor caved in.

AN:So. Cliff-hanger, I know. Sorrynotsorry. Stuff's about to go down. Hope you liked :D Remember. Reviews = love

Xxx

~Fen~