AN: FINALLY I'VE FINISHED THE CHAPTER! I'm an SO sorry this took forever to finish. I was almost done with it when I lost my flash drive, and then I had writers block. But I've finally finished. As a sorry I made sure it was the longest chapter yet. So, here you go. Thank you for waiting patiently. Enjoy and please R&R.

Avengers 2: Plausible Explanations

…
"I like you're attitude. Soooo Miss Keeper. Why'd you pass out?" Tony asked, walking around the table the Keeper was set on and pulling a chair out. Tony turned the chair so the back was facing the Keeper before sitting in it and leaning forward, crossing his arms over the back of the chair and settling his chin on his crossed arms. Giving the Keeper his full attention.
…

"I think I passed out because I overexerted myself." The Keeper hesitantly answered Tony's question. Taking a long moment to carefully think over the best explanation. The truth was she had no idea why she passed out. She had plenty of theories she could work off of, but at this point she had no real understanding of how she traveled through the Vortex in the first place let alone why it wouldn't work when she tried it again.

"I've only traveled through the Vortex twice now. Three times tops if you count the first time I traveled through dimensions. Add on the fact that I've only consciously chosen to travel once and it makes perfect sense that I'd be to, uh, worn out to properly travel anywhere else for a while. I mean, this is a new… 'power' to me and I guess I just need to develop it a bit." The Keeper knew she was rambling, but she couldn't help but try and come up with a proper understanding of her new found 'powers' as she tried to explain things to Tony. Tony seemed to understand the Keepers need to ramble and sat and listened to her attempted explanation quietly. Well, quite for Tony at least.

"Wait." Tony interjected, making the Keeper pause as she gave the scientist her full attention. "You're telling me that you've only traveled through the… whatever it is you travel through three times now? Just how new are you to this power?" Tony asked rather sternly. He had assumed with how composed the girl seemed to be that she'd been popping from one world to the next for a long time now.

Tony had figured that anyone as nonplused about their situation as the girl seemed to be was well seasoned in using their powers. To find out that this rather young woman in front of him had only recently come to develop her abilities was more than a bit surprising. It didn't help that the girl was probably half his age. It'd taken him years to come to terms with his new life. The thought that this young woman was so easily adjusting to something that was almost impossible for most to comprehend was hard to believe. He knew she said she was new to time travel. He just never really realized how new.

The Keeper was oblivious to Stark's inner turmoil, though she could tell something was up with the way he was intently evaluating her like some kind of alien specimen. Though she was technically an alien now, he didn't know that. At least, not yet. She doubted Tony even knew he was staring at her so intently, he seemed far to lost in his own musings to be aware of how he was inspecting her. It still freaked the Keeper out though, so she cleared her throat, drawing Tony from his thoughts as she carefully answered his question. Sensing that it was something important, though she had no idea just how important it really was to Tony.

"Um, if I'm right the first time I traveled through the Vortex was around… a week to a week and a half ago. Give or take a day or two. Things get a bit confusing with Time Travel." It was odd for the Keeper to think back on her first real experience with time travel. It felt like a life time ago, and in a way it was. She couldn't imagine going back to her old life now. The Keeper was pulled from her thoughts when the door to the lab swished open. Bruce Banner rushing in with none other than Nick Fury following closely behind him. Bruce glanced from the now conscious Keeper to the stunned Tony before glancing nervously at the eye patched man behind him. The Director glanced briefly at the still stunned Tony before settling his intimidating gaze on the Keeper.

"Who the hell are you and what are you doing on my Helicarrier?" Director Fury demanded. Drawing Tony from his shock and making the Keeper flinch slightly. She cleared her throat and wrung her hands nervously in her lap. She took a deep breath, composing herself before meeting Fury's gaze. Something that seemed to slightly please the man. Not many had the guts to meet his gaze. Even less could do so while he was actively glaring at them.

"I'm the Keeper, and, as I've told Tony and Bruce, I came here by accident." The Keeper stated. She had to bite her tongue to keep herself from rambling off some senseless explanation. From what she remembered of the movies, Fury wasn't one to wait through such senseless babbling. Fury cocked an eyebrow as he stared steadily at the Keeper. Obviously waiting for her to expand on her answer. Something the Keeper wasn't quite ready to do yet considering how little she really knew. Sure, she had plenty of theories explaining what had happened to her, but no proper explanation. Fury seemed to sense that he was going to get nothing more out of the girl and turned to Tony. His gaze clearly saying that he expected Tony to tell him what had happened. Tony just shrugged, a passive look on his face. The Keeper couldn't help but marvel at the fact that Tony was so calm under Fury's intense gaze.

"She's telling the truth. Bruce here left to go get some Coffee for us and I was alone working when she just kind of… appeared. She was obviously confused, and she later explained that she'd taken 'a wrong turn'." Tony smirked slightly as he watched Fury roll his eyes at the lacking explanation. It was clear to Fury that he wouldn't find out how the girl had appeared on his Helicarrier anytime soon and honestly he didn't have the time to waste. Besides, it seemed that Tony and Bruce trusted the girl enough. He'd have to have Colson or Natasha keep an eye on the girl but at this point she wasn't worth his time. Heck, he might even send the Captain over to keep an eye on the girl.

"Fine. Don't tell me. I'll find out sooner or later. Until then I'm keeping you under careful surveillance. You're not to go anywhere on the Helicarrier without supervision. Got that?" Fury spoke sternly as he stared down the Keeper. Daring her to try and challenge him. The Keeper just nodded in acceptance of Fury's terms. She honestly didn't mind the thought of being under surveillance and she could understand why Fury was hesitant to trust her. In all honesty she'd never expected him to let her stay on the aircraft. Fury seemed satisfied that the girl wouldn't challenge him as he gave a small nod to the people in the room before turning and walking out of the lab. His coat fanning around him and dramatically flowing behind him.

"So… that went well." Bruce stated with a small hint of amusement in his voice. Stark and the Keeper glanced at each other before settling their gazes on Banner. They sat in silence for a moment longer before bursting out in laughter. It wasn't that the situation was particularly funny. Rather, the trio simply needed a way to comfortably brake the tension. So they took a moment to laugh their nerves away.

…

Not even thirty minutes later Tony and Bruce were back to work. Bruce bent over the scepter as he scanned with a little hand-held scanner while Tony worked on adjusting a number of settings as he read the results off the screen to Banner. The Keeper was still sitting on the table the pair had set her on when she'd passed out as she listened to them talk science with a small smile on her face. She was currently munching on a bag of Blueberries Tony had offered her after her stomach gave a particularly loud and embarrassing growl. "Sorry to have shocked you Dr. Banner." The Keeper apologized with a slightly sheepish smile as she popped a blueberry into her mouth. Bruce just waved off her apology with a smile. She honestly was sorry she'd worried the man so much.

"Don't worry about it Keeper. I'm just happy you're okay. Also, call me Bruce. Dr. Banner makes me sound old." Bruce joked, bringing a smile to the keepers face. In all honesty Banner was far more social then the movie made him seem. The Keeper had been surprised with just how easy it was to talk and joke with the man the movie presented as a recluse. She supposed it had a lot to do with the fact that it was a movie. Despite how good it was, a movie was only ever going to be a movie. There might be a universe that followed the same basic storyline. But the people were real. They had time to develop and when they spoke it wasn't reading words from a script. It was actual people voicing their opinions. There was so much more to a person then what was presented on the silver screen. The Keeper, for all her initial trouble in remembering that this was real, was beginning to gain a better understanding of that.

"We are old Bruce. At least, compared to the 'Time Traveler' we are. You can't be older then what? Twenty?" Tony's tone was passive as he tried to make the question seem random, but the curious gleam in his eye betrayed his true interest in the question. The truth was, Tony still couldn't get over the fact that someone who appeared to be half his age had only been traveling between worlds for a week and seemed to be fine with it. Tony knew that, in her situation he'd be having a mental breakdown. He just couldn't understand how the girl was so calm about all this. He remembered that, when she first appeared, she'd asked how old she appeared. Meaning for all he knew the girl could be decades older then him. It would certainly ease his worries to know that the girl might have more life experience, making it easier for her to accept her situation.

"Actually, I'm not sure how old I am. I mean, I was 17 and only a few days away from my birthday when I got pulled into the Doctor's universe. I kind of lost track of time. So I'd assume I'm 18 now. Though, I've come to discover that my physical appearance does slightly affect my personality and mannerisms." The Keeper explained. Both Bruce and Tony stopped in their work and stared at her in shock. They had honestly not expected the odd girl to be so young.

"I mean. I could be older than that for all I know. The only living thing meant to travel through the Vortex is a TARDIS and I've got no idea what traveling through it might've done to me. I mean, I know one of the consequences is my physical age changes randomly. Before I came here I had the appearance of a five year old little girl. I acted a lot like one too. Mind you, I was still much more mature and knowledgeable then when I was really five but that doesn't change the fact that I was still acting a lot more like a kid then I normally would have." The Keeper began to ramble. Trying to ease the looks of shock off of her new found friend's faces. She wasn't sure why, but she didn't like the look they were giving her. It might have been because their look seemed to be a mix of disbelief and something akin to pity, but she just didn't like it.

Tony glanced from the Keeper to Bruce and back again. He had hundreds, no, thousands of questions he wanted to ask the girl, but as he listened to her ramble and saw the look of distress on her face, he knew now was not the time to ask them. So, doing what he did best, he improvised. Using the screwdriver in his hands he quickly jabbed Bruce in the side, causing the man to jump in surprise and let out a sudden cry of "Owe!" That just so happened to be the exact moment that Captain Rogers walked in.

"Hey!" Captain Rogers had, upon instruction from Fury, gone to watch over the work of the scientist and keep an eye on the 'odd girl' that had apparently appeared out of thin air. The Captain was, understandably, pissed that Stark had essentially provoked the man with rather famous anger management issues. It didn't help that he already held a rather bad opinion of Stark considering all the rumors he's heard about the man. So it was with that already building anger that he stormed into the room and demanded answers.

"Nothing?" Stark asked, ignoring the Captain, and honestly shocked that Banner wasn't even slightly annoyed at the surprise jab. Banner just smiled and shook his head negative before returning his attention to the scepter he was currently scanning the Gamma rays from.

"Are you nuts?" The Captain asked. Walking swiftly passed the Keeper without so much as a glance in her direction as he concentrated his rather heated glare at the famed Tony Stark. Stark finally acknowledged the Captain with a quick glance in his direction.

"Jury's out." Stark quipped. Dismissing the Captain's worry easily as he turned his attention back to Banner. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?" Tony asked Banner with a small wink, making the Keeper bite her lip in a sorry attempt at holding in her giggles. Banner seemed to catch on to Tony's attempt at a topic change as a small smirk settled on his face. He opened his mouth, ready to answer when the Captain cut him off.

"Is everything a joke to you?" He demanded. The Captain was enraged that Tony was treating something as serious as Banner's… condition as carelessly as he was.

"Funny things are." Tony dismissed the question with a shrug. Finally giving the raging Captain his attention. The Keeper watched as the Captain fumed.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." Captain Rogers countered. As if realizing what his words implied, the Captain quickly turned to Bruce. "No offence, Doctor." Bruce just waved off the Captains apology in much the same way that he had waved of the Keepers apology only moments earlier.

"No it- it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." Banner joked, trying to ease the growing tension. One of the big reasons he avoided people was not because he feared turning into the Hulk. No, he could control himself far better than that. Sure, it did help to stay away from people, but it wasn't necessary. He stayed away from people because he couldn't stand the way people acted around him. Like he was a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off.

It was why he got along so well with Tony initially. Tony had trusted that Bruce would be able to control his emotions. It left him idly wondering if the Keeper knew of his… ability. She acted as if she knew nothing about his alter ego, but he could tell she knew something about him. She knew his name, and she knew he held the official title of 'doctor'. He just didn't know how far her knowledge of him went. He could only hope that, should she not know already, that she wouldn't change her opinion or actions around him once she did learn of it. He had found a friend in the young girl rather quickly and he honestly didn't want to experience losing another friend. He wasn't sure he could handle it.

"You're tiptoeing big man. You need to strut." Tony smirked as he strode away from Bruce and towards the Keeper. Tony, for all his projected self-confidence, understood Banners need to be completely accepted. Despite all the airs he put on, Tony very rarely interacted or engaged with the people surrounding him. There were a select few he trusted with his true opinions and feelings, and even then he was hesitant to open up to them. It was why he was so good at dealing with the media. The person the media often tore down was nothing more than a cover. Where Bruce chose to hide physically, Tony chose to hide emotionally. Captain Rogers, it seemed, never bothered with hiding, and had no real understanding of what it meant to single out Bruce as he so often did. Where the Captain saw it as being cautions, those who experienced it saw it as a way to, for lack of a better term, bully someone.

"And you need to focus on the problem Mr. Stark." The Captain snapped. He'd dropped the original argument of 'not messing with Bruce'. He could tell it was pointless when Bruce himself said it was fine. He could only hope that Tony didn't continue to push the boundaries. He'd seen videos of what the 'Other Guy' could do and he couldn't stand the thought of that happening again on a highly populated air craft. Even worse is if it somehow got to a highly populated city. The Captain wasn't sure if he could beat the Hulk, and he didn't like the thought of fighting what was essentially Bruce.

"You think I'm not?" Tony asked. His tone betraying just how annoyed the Captain's statement made him as he grabbed the silver bag of blueberries from the Keeper's hand before pouring about half of the bag into his hand and handing it back to her. "Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us?" Stark fired off one question after another. His tone hard as he glared at the Captain. "I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?" The Captain sounded incredulous. Like he had trouble believing that Tony couldn't trust Fury, his commanding officer, so to speak.

"He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets. It's bugging him too, isn't it?" Stark stated, directing his last statement, because it was a statement, not a question, at Banner. Banner seemed somewhat lost and a bit uncomfortable at being pulled into the spot light again and began stuttering out an answer.

"Uh," Bruce stuttered slightly, gesturing at his area of work as he tried to weasel his way out of picking a side. He might have control of his emotions, but it didn't change the fact that he'd prefer avoiding confrontation altogether. "I just want to finish my work here and…"

"Doctor?" The Captain cut off Banner's rambled explanation. The Captain's words held a no-nonsense tone to them. It was clear that he wanted to hear Banner's true opinion. Banner paused a moment, thinking over everything before letting out a resigned sigh and taking off his glasses. Fiddling with them a bit before folding them and holding them in his hand. The Keeper could only assume that this was something Bruce did often when talking about something serious.

"A warm light for all mankind. Loki's jab at Fury about the cube." Bruce began his explanation before pausing.

"I heard it." The Captain urged Bruce to continue his explanation. Bruce hesitated only a moment longer before looking up and meeting Tony's eyes with his own. Tony was standing next to Banner again and was munching on the blueberries he'd taken from the bag he gave the Keeper.

"I think it was meant for you." Banner told Stark. Stark simply extended his hand, wordlessly offering Banner a blueberry as he turned to look out the large window that made up almost half of the wall directly opposite the door. Banner glanced down at the snack before shrugging and grabbing a few as he continued his explanation. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."

"The Stark Tower?" The Captain asked, honestly a bit lost with the drastic turn the discussion had taken. "That big, ugly-" He paused at the look Tony gave him. "Building in New York?"

"It's powered by an arch reactor," Bruce stated as he focused his attention on the glasses he was fiddling with. "A self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?" Bruce asked. Tony nodded, quickly finishing off the blueberries he had in his mouth before answering.

"It's just the prototype." He answered before to Captain Rogers, a smug look in his eye. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now." The Keeper rolled her eyes at that, making Tony smirk. "That's what he's getting at." Tony explained to the Captain.

"So," Bruce continued, "why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D. bring him in on the Tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" He questioned, drawing everyone's attention to the oddities of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s actions.

"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure files." Stark stated as he walked around the table and began checking on some random readings on one of the monitors hanging from the ceiling.

"I'm sorry. Did you say-" The Captain began to question, only to get cut off by Tony, who had moved to stand in front of him. One hand full of blueberries and the other holding a small square inch and a half wide screen that was displaying readings of some sort.

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge." Tony admitted in a matter-of-fact fashion. "In a few hours, I'll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever tried to hide." He told the Captain before glancing down at the small pile of blueberries still in his hand. "Blueberry?" Tony offered the Captain, making the Keeper giggle slightly. She'd remembered a little tidbit her sister had told her about Robert Downey Jr. hiding food around the set and pulling it out at random moments to snack on. She smiled as she continued to eat her own blueberries and watched the conversation going on in front of her.

The Keeper couldn't help but wonder just what she was going to do here as she watched. Sure, she was a Time Lord, but that didn't mean she had any super powers to use to her advantage in the fight in New York. She couldn't worn S.H.I.E.L.D. about the Chitauri attack and Loki's plans. It was a fixed point in this universe's time line. She wasn't sure how she could tell, but she could feel it in her gut. The invasion needed to happen. The most she could hope to do is help evacuate people.

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around." The Captain's harsh tone pulled the Keeper from her musings and she couldn't help but frown at the insult. Tony had become something of a friend to her in the short time they've known each other, and she could never stand people insulting her friends. The only thing keeping her from voicing her dislike of the Captain's words was Tony's counter.

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence?" Tony asked, making the Captain turn his gaze away from him. Something he seemed to do when he was bested in a verbal battle. "Historically, not awesome." That managed to bring back the Keepers smile. It was a good point. If used in a bit of a twisted context. The Captain seemed to take a second to gather his thoughts and emotions before turning back to Tony.

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed." Captain Rogers stated. "We have orders. We should follow them."

"Following's not really my style." Tony countered before throwing the last of the blueberries in his hand into his mouth. The Captain's jaw tensed at Tony's words as he regarded the man with a look of clear disproval.

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" The Captain tried to make a jab at Stark's habits.

"Of the people in this room, which one is, A, wearing a spangly outfit, and, B, not of use?" Tony easily countered the Captains harsh words. Though the Keeper couldn't help but frown at his words. She didn't much like the Captain's attitude at the moment, but she couldn't help but feel that Tony essentially calling the Captain useless was uncalled for. So, with a heavy frown still on her face she raised her hand, drawing Tony's and Bruce's attention to her and making the Captain turn to see what drew the scientist's attention from him.

"Well Tony. I'm kinda useless at the moment. Though I'm not wearing a spangly outfit. Suppose I could get one though. I wonder if the TARDIS has any…" She mumbled that last part to herself. The Captain seemed somewhat speechless by the woman's odd words and couldn't help but wonder if a 'TARDIS' was something new to this time period, or specific to the girl. Tony cocked an eyebrow at the Keepers statement and opened his mouth, ready to defend her presence before getting cut off by Bruce.

"Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you." Bruce interjected, sensing the Keeper's attempt to stop the impending fight and deciding he'd try and help her out. The Captain paused and seemed to think over Banner's words carefully before returning his gaze to Stark, making Tony turn his gaze from the Keeper and settle it on the Captain once again.

The Captain seemed to think deeply a moment longer. "Just find the cube." He ordered before quickly leaving the room, pausing at the door and giving the Keeper one final glance before leaving.